Full text of "China from Within; Or, The Story of the Chinese Crisis"

See other formats

Google

This is a digital copy of a book that was preserved for generations on library shelves before it was carefully scanned by Google as part of a project

to make the world's books discoverable online.

It has survived long enough for the copyright to expire and the book to enter the public domain. A public domain book is one that was never subject

to copyright or whose legal copyright term has expired. Whether a book is in the public domain may vary country to country. Public domain books

are our gateways to the past, representing a wealth of history, culture and knowledge that's often difficult to discover.

Marks, notations and other maiginalia present in the original volume will appear in this file - a reminder of this book's long journey from the

publisher to a library and finally to you.

Usage guidelines

Google is proud to partner with libraries to digitize public domain materials and make them widely accessible. Public domain books belong to the
public and we are merely their custodians. Nevertheless, this work is expensive, so in order to keep providing tliis resource, we liave taken steps to
prevent abuse by commercial parties, including placing technical restrictions on automated querying.
We also ask that you:

+ Make non-commercial use of the files We designed Google Book Search for use by individuals, and we request that you use these files for
personal, non-commercial purposes.

+ Refrain fivm automated querying Do not send automated queries of any sort to Google's system: If you are conducting research on machine
translation, optical character recognition or other areas where access to a large amount of text is helpful, please contact us. We encourage the
use of public domain materials for these purposes and may be able to help.

+ Maintain attributionTht GoogXt "watermark" you see on each file is essential for in forming people about this project and helping them find
additional materials through Google Book Search. Please do not remove it.

+ Keep it legal Whatever your use, remember that you are responsible for ensuring that what you are doing is legal. Do not assume that just
because we believe a book is in the public domain for users in the United States, that the work is also in the public domain for users in other
countries. Whether a book is still in copyright varies from country to country, and we can't offer guidance on whether any specific use of
any specific book is allowed. Please do not assume that a book's appearance in Google Book Search means it can be used in any manner
anywhere in the world. Copyright infringement liabili^ can be quite severe.

About Google Book Search

Google's mission is to organize the world's information and to make it universally accessible and useful. Google Book Search helps readers
discover the world's books while helping authors and publishers reach new audiences. You can search through the full text of this book on the web

at |http: //books .google .com/I

CHfNA

FROM

tNEsroRyoF

■The

CHf^.<£S£

CRfS<5

STANLEV

CHINA FROM WITHIN

OR THE STORY OF THE
CHINESE CRISIS

BY STANLEY P. SMITH B.A

FORMERLY OF TRINITY COLLEGE CAM-
BRIDGE, AND OF THE CHINA
INLAND MISSION

?•

LONDON MARSHALL HHOTHESS

KESWICK HOUSE PATERNOSTER
ROW E.C 1901

]>S77I

To
Charles T. Studd, Montagu H. Beauchamp,
William W. Cassels, Dixon E. Hoste, Cecil
and Arthur Polhill-Turner, Members of "the
Cambridge Seven" of 1885, and fellow-labourers
with me for the good of China, this Work is
inscribed with respect and affection.

PREFACE

IN the closing words of this book we have pre-
ferred to call it a cotnpilation. Certainly, by
far the greater part of the first ten chapters has
merely been compiled from different sources ; the
tenth chapter, indeed, being wholly the work of
another. This is so for two reasons. Firstly, in
the nature of the case, the events spoken of could
be most truthfully and graphically told in the
language of eye-witnesses. Secondly, the book was
required in haste. A little over a month has been
occupied in its compilation, and that time has been
constantly broken into by journeyings and public
duties.

Our deepest debt of thanks is due to the North
China Herald, which is the weekly edition of the
North China Daily News. This paper is justly
held to be the best newspaper in the Far East.
Among its correspondents are the most able and
best-informed missionaries in all parts of China,
besides other foreigners in the treaty ports ; and
in addition to this, it numbers among its native

PREFACE

contributors some of the highest in the land, both
of the officials and gentry. It is, perhaps, not too
much to say that if its prescient warnings about
the rise and progress of this late anti-foreign move-
ment had been laid to heart earlier It might have
been avoided, or certainly mitigated in Its intensity.
No one who wishes to be well posted up in matters
Chinese can afford to be without the paper. We
are also under great obligation to Dr. Morrison for
the long extracts made from his accurate account of
" The Siege of Peking." The compilation seeks to
address two classes of people. Firstly, to the general
public we have striven to give such an account of
the late anti-foreign movement, as to its inception,
culmination, and causes, as shall give them real in-
formation on these points. And secondly, we are
addressing that large body of people who believe
in the Lord's Prayer, and therefore the vital con-
nection that exists between prayer and the coming
of the kingdom of God on earth, that they may
the more intelligently enter into the great needs of
the Chinese Empire, foremost among which are a
sovereign animated by Christian sentiment, and a
liberal, enlightened, and progressive government.

HuNTWORTH, Bedford,
Nov. 28, 190a

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I
Introduction

rAGB

CHAPTER II
The Emperor Kuang-HsO and the Reform Movement 7

CHAPTER III
The Reactionaries and their Policy. . . .17

CHAPTER IV
Inflammatory Edicts 28

CHAPTER V
From the Second Coup d^Atat to Anarchy in Peking 35

CHAPTER VI
The Grand Council in the Palace .... 45

CHAPTER VII
The Power of Darkness 60

CHAPTER VIII
The Shan-si Massacres 73

viii CONTENTS

CHAPTER IX

PAGE

The Siege of Peking 96

CHAPTER X
The Punishment of Peking 119

CHAPTER XI
The Causes of the Uprising 142

CHAPTER Xn
Religion in China 172

CHAPTER XIII
China's Need of True Religion 190

CHAPTER XIV
Lady Missionaries in the Interior of China » .211

CHAPTER XV
Conclusion 225

Chapter I
INTRODUCTORY

IN seeking to put before the reader a connected
account of the events and causes that have led
up to the present crisis, it will be necessary to
touch on the intercourse between China and foreign
countries in the last sixty years. Though deep in-
terest attaches to the story of Chinese and foreign
intercourse previous to that period, it is beyond the
scope of this book to do more than merely mention
the facts, that in matters of religion, there had been
the attempts of the Nestorians to propagate Chris-
tianity in China from the seventh to the thirteenth
centuries, the Roman Catholics, with varying suc-
cess, have attempted the same from the thirteenth
century onwards, whereas the pioneer of Protestant
missions, Robert Morrison, landed in China in 1807.
In matters of commerce, there was the Arab trade
in the ninth century ; but it was not till about the
year 1600, that trade with western countries assumed
any proportion ; from that time it has steadily de-
veloped, entering into an entirely new phase, how-
Lever, some sixty years ago.

We begin, then, with the epoch-making war of

2 CHINA FROM WITHIN

1841 between Great Britain and China. It was
brought to an end by the Treaty of Nanking, signed
by Sir Henry Pottinger on behalf of Great Britain,
August 26th, 1842. By which it was enacted
that : —

1. An indemnity of over ^^4,000,000 should be
paid by China before the end of 1845,

2. The island of Hong-Kong should be ceded to
the British.

3. The five treaty ports of Canton, Amoy, Fuh-
chou, Ning-po and Shanghai should be opened to
foreign trade.

At these treaty ports, land concessions were ob-
tained, and the rights of building and residence given
to foreigners.

Merchants built their houses of business, mis-
sionaries their churches, and the religion and com-
merce of the West began to develop, more powerfully
than in the past, their beneficent work of Christian-
izing and civilizing China (opium and a few other
things excepted).

We reach another epoch in 1857. A second war
between Great Britain and China, as evil as the
first in its origins-opium — and yet over-ruled by
God, whose it is to permit evil for a higher good,
to the further opening up of China.

On the 26th June, 1858, Lord Elgin and Baron
Gros, the plenipotentiaries of Great Britain and
France — countries then allied in attacking China
— signed the Treaty of Tientsin.

INTRODUCTORY 3

This famous treaty, so far-reaching in its effects,
secured :—

1. The toleration of Christianity.

2. The residence of foreign ministers at Pe-
king.

3. The freedom for foreigners, provided with
passports, to travel through the land.

But these benefits could not be at once enjoyed ;
fear and mistrust of the foreign powers led the
Emperor Hsien-feng to oppose the foreign ministers
setting foot in Peking, and again the services of
Lord Elgin and Baron Gros were required by their
respective governments. On the 25th of June,
1 859, the allies suffered a repulse at the Taku Forts ;
but reinforcements being sent out, August 21st of
the following year, i860, saw them In possession of
the forts, and on the 25th, Lord Elgin and Baron
Gros took up their residence in Tientsin.

On the 24th of October they signed the Peking
Convention. It enacted that the Chinese govern-
ment should : —

r. Pay 8,000,000 taels for the expenses of the
expedition.

2. Permit Chinese contract labourers to emigrate
will, without losing their nationality.

3. Cede Kowlung, a district opposite Hong-Kong,
the British.
The French, instead of acquiring territory, insisted

in properties which had formerly belonged to per-
secuted Roman Catholic Christians being restored

4- CHINA FROM WITHIN

— a step which created not a little friction, raising
issues dating back over a century.

In i86r missionaries began their work in Peking.

From 1861 to 189^, when we come to the third
great war in which China was engaged with
foreigners — the Chinese-Japanese war — great strides
had been made in the matter of breaking down
China's exclusiveness, and the development of inter-
course with foreigners. Travellers and missionaries
had penetrated every province, railways had been
laid, mines worked, the telegraph wire connected
the provincial capitals, newspapers, current in the
treaty ports, found their way into the interior.
Forces were gradually developing in volume and
strength, which were beginning to profoundly affect
the thought of China.

At the time of writing (1900), one mission in
China has over 140 mission stations with resident
foreign missionaries, and over 200 out-stations
working in fourteen out of the eighteen provinces
of China ; and this only one mission, albeit numeri-
cally the largest, out of sixty. Wherever the foreign
missionary went became a point of light; the Chinese
are nothing if not curious, and questions ranging on
most topics between heaven and earth met the mis-
sionary, who in his answers could often enlighten
the people on many subjects, other than the supreme
subject of the love of God in the Gospel. Then
there was the beneficent work of the medical mis-
sionary, amongst a people where the rudiments of

INTRODUCTORY

treating disease is almost wholly unknown ; where
there is barely any knowledge of anatomy, where
there is "no distinction between veins, arteries,
nerves, and tendons," and where acupuncture — the
needle being thrust sometimes into vital places — is
looked upon as a panacea for a host of ills. The
work of medical missions has, no doubt, favourably
impressed the Chinese people ; it has opened places
where before no entrance could be found, and in
not a few districts made confidence replace sus-
picion. Then the still greater work of the press.
The tract societies issuing in total millions of tracts
a year, the Bible societies selling a gospel for the
eighth of a penny, and the New Testament for a
penny and under. The scientific books of the West,
mostly translated by missionaries and Christian men,
and especially the Christian Literature Society,
which, with funds far short of its true value as a
society, has translated some of the best books of
the West on Christian and general topics, such as
government, political economy, etc., books written
from a Christian standpoint, so eagerly devoured
by the scholars of China, that, previous to the coup
d'Hat of i8g8, the supply could not equal the de-
mand.

These forces, together with the general impres-
sions made on the minds of the thoughtful by our
commerce, inventions, and the general high char-
acter of our consuls and merchants, created a vast
ferment of thought throughout the empire, and de-

6 CHINA FROM WITHIN

veloped in 189S into the Reform movement, at the
head of which was the young Emperor. The terrible
humiliation of the rulers of China which followed the
Chinese- Japanese war, brought the desires of the
Reform party to a head, and the young Emperor
entered on a path which was a revolution of the
ideas of millenniums. The more enlightened among
the rulers of China were confronted with a fact
which demanded adequate explanation. China, with
a boasted population of 400,cxx),ooo people, had been
worsted by a nation, whom she spoke of in derision
as "a nation of dwarfs," with a population only one-
tenth as large. Here was the fact. What was the
explanation ? Japan had adopted Western ideas,
she had opened her schools to Western science,
her army and navy were after Western models, in
methods of warfare she respected the Geneva con-
vention. Christianity was professed by many of her
people, and even by her rulers Christianity was in-
creasingly respected, the rights of her people were
asserted by a parliament; in a word, Japan had
begun to follow in the wake of Christian civilization.

Chapter II

' THE EMPEROR KUANG-HSU AND THE
REFORM MOVEMENT

THE Emperor Kuang-hsU is now (1900) in his
thirtieth year, having been born August 15,
1871. The words " Kuang-hsii" mean " Illustrious
Succession." Strictly speaking, these words are the
title of his ret^yi, and not his personal name, which
is Tsai-t'ien. The Emperor is the son of Prince
Chun, who was the seventh son of Tao-kuang
(reigned 1820-1850). He succeeded his cousin
Tung-chi on January 12, 1875. Tung-chi was the
son of Hsien-feng, by the present Empress
Dowager. Hsien-feng was the fourth son of, and
successor to, Tao-kuang, Tao-kuang's three elder
sons having died through excessive use of opium.
The present Empress Dowager is thus the aunt by
marriage of the Emperor.

When quite a child, the Emperor was fond of
foreign toys, and as he grew in years he had a
special Hking for scientific toys, so much so, that
there were few of such wonders that were not to be
found in the Imperial palace. Later on he studied
English, and when the women members of the

8 CHINA FROM WITHIN

native Churches subscribed to give a New Testa-
ment to the Empress Dowager, the next day after
the presentation he bought an Old and New Testa-
ment for himself, and then began making large
purchases of Christian books, as well as all kinds of
scientific works. In the beginning of 1898 the
Emperor sent for one hundred and twenty-nine
different kinds of books, eighty-nine of which were
issued by the Christian Literature Society. That
he should have studied so many was of course im-
possible, but the mere purchasing of the books
showed the bent of his mind.

Then followed the reform edicts, about thirty in
number, issued within a few months. The less
startling ones enacted : The establishing of a uni-
versity in Peking for the study of English and
Western science ; the encouragement of art, science,
and modern agriculture ; the establishing of a patent
office ; the extension of railways ; the introduction
of the Imperial Post. The more revolutionary
enacted: That the sons of Imperial clansmen were
to study foreign languages and travel abroad ; the
abolishing of the essay system of examination—
which has been in vogue for five hundred years ;
the right to memorialize the throne by sealed
memorials ; and that the Buddhist and Taoist
temples should be changed into schools for the edu-
cation of the people. Such edicts were the direct
outcome of wide reading, and the products of a
liberal and enlightened mind. The effect on the

THE EMPEROR AND REFORM 9

country at large was most marked, the scholars
became notably friendly, and frequented Mission
premises in a way unknown before. It seemed as
if Christianity would roll over the country in a great
wave, sweeping multitudes into the Church. And
then, when all seemed so favourable, as a bolt out of the
blue, came the coup d'etat of the Empress Dowager
in the September of 1S98. The Reform Club had
been already closed. On the 28th of that month she
had six of the most prominent reformers beheaded
without trial, young men of high birth and great
gifts. She imprisoned others for life, and banished
others to the confines of the Empire. She sup-
pressed the native newspapers, forbade the forma-
tion of reform societies, promoted anti- reformers to \
places of power, issued a series of edicts exactly •
counteracting the reform edicts of the Emperor, 1
set the price of 100,000 taels on the head of the [
leading reformer, K'ang yu-wei (who, forewarned by I
the Emperor, had escaped from Peking just in time I
to save his life); she got together the names of some \
three hundred prominent reformers, with a view to 1
their future hurt, and sought in every possible way I
to stamp out and annihilate everything connected j
with the words progress and reform. /

It must not be imagined that all this was the
work of one woman. The Empress is entirely
dependent on her advisers for news of the outside
Id ; she had got herself surrounded by a little
:rie of reactionary bigots, men in whom the three

TO CHINA FROM WITHIN

banes of China — pride, ignorance, and superstition —
were developed to the highest degree, so fierce in
their unreasonable hatred of the foreigner that it
was a remark current among them, that they longed
to have the skin of a foreigner for their bed quilt.
These were the men — K'ang-yi, Hsii-Tung, Chao
Shu-ch'iao, Wang wen-shao, and K'un-kang — who
poured into the ears of the Empress Dowager
ghastly tales of the horrors perpetrated in Western
schools, and bespoke the direful calamities that
would come on China if she adopted Western learn-
ing and customs. She became their dupe before
she was their leader.

The immediate cause of this great reactionary
movement sprang out of the Emperor's edict
granting the right to memorialize him by sealed
memorials,

'A secretary of the Board of Rites, Wang Chao
by name, presented a memorial urging that the
Protestant Christian religion should be made the
State religion of the Empire in place of Con-
fucianism, that a Parliament should be formed, and
the queue and national costume give place to
Western dress. For this Wang Chao was de-
nounced to the Emperor by the president and vice-
president of the Board, who, contrary to the edict,
had intercepted the memorial. To the surprise of
most, the Emperor strongly condemned the action

^ See North China Herald, September 19, z6, and October 3,

f
^

THE EMPEROR AND REFORM ii

of the denouncers, promoted Wang Chao, and
cashiered the president and vice-president for ever
from Imperial service.

This brought matters to a head. The reaction-
aries, Kang-yi, Hsii Tung, and others named above,
memorialized the Empress, together with the
cashiered presidents of the Board of Rites. " Soon
after this," to quote from the North China Herald,
" one of the most bigoted and notorious Conserva-
tives of Peking, a censor named Yang Chung-yi,
and a secret parasite and prot^g^ of Yung-Iu, sud-
denly presented a secret memorial to the Empress
Dowager, pointing out the dangers into which
reform was rushing the country through the intro-
duction of Western civilization, which would be
followed soon afterwards by the predominance of
foreign countries In the Empire, and the gradual
disappearance of the dynasty. The censor implored
the Empress Dowager, therefore, to resume the
reins of government, as this was the only way to
save the Empire."

The real author of this memorial was Yung-lu,
commander-in-chief of the forces, who had thrown
in his lot with the Empress, and determined to
secure his own selfish ambitions on the overthrow
of the Emperor.

Shortly after this Yung-lu had an interview with
the Empress in I-ho Park, " He advised her to call
the Imperial clansmen. Prince Tuan and Prince Tsai-
lien, to her presence, and ask for their assistance in

12 CHINA FROM WITHIN

deposing the Emperor and crushing his reform ad-
visers, and to purchase Prince Tuan's loyal allegiance
by promising to choose the Emperor's successor on
the throne from amongst his younger sons. The
only thing these two princes were required to do,
was to lead all the princes, dukes, nobles, and min-
isters of the Imperial clan on a certain day, and
proceed to I-ho Park to demand the deposition ot
the 'unworthy' Emperor, who was sending the
Imperial house and the Empire to perdition, and
slavery under foreign nations, and to pray that the
reins of government be taken over for the time by
the Empress Dowager herself in order to save the
situation. On the other hand, Hsu-Tung, K'ang-
Yi, Chao Shu-ch'iao, and others were to lead the
ministers and officials, not belonging to the Imperial
house, and supplement the demands of the former."
" While the plots against the Emperor and his
reformers were maturing, the latter were also trying
their best to counteract their enemies. It was soon
known that Yung-lu had visited I-ho Park, and as
he held the chief military power in the vicinity,
without whose aid the reactionists could never
succeed in their scheme, the Emperor was deter-
mined to make away with him. To do this it was
decided to make use of the services of YUan Shih-
kai, commanding the best armed and best disciplined
corps of Yung-lu's grand army." Yiian Shih-kai
had been Imperial resident in Corea, is now
governor of Shan-tung province, and was at that

THE EMPEROR AND REFORM

time "in command of 12,500 troops, modelled,
drilled, and disciplined after the most approved
German system."

Yilan was promoted by the Emperor to be vice-
president of the Board of Works, and given a public
audience of the Emperor. After this "he was
immediately invited to a secret council with the
Emperor's principal reformers, held at K'ang Yu-
wei's residence. He was there told that the
Emperor intended to give him a secret audience in
the palace that evening, that the Emperor would
then order him to bring to Tientsin a force of 3,000
men, when he was to arrest and summarily decapi-
tate Yung-lu inside the Vice-regal yamen. ( Yung-lu
was at that time Viceroy of Chih-Ii province, and
resident in Tientsin.) The next step to be required
was that Yiian Shih-kai should immediately after-
wards bring up his troops by rail to Peking, bring-
ing along with him the Vice-regal seals he was to
take from Yung-lu. Arrived at Peking, YUan
Shih-kai was to march over at once to I-ho Park,
surround it, and prevent all ingress or egress, his
Majesty being determined to keep the Empress
Dowager a prisoner of state there, until the Reform
Government had become so firmly rooted that the
Empress Dowager and her Conservatives would
never, hereafter, be able to restore the old Conser-
vative order of things in the Empire again."

Yiian Shih-kai, however, played into the hands
i(rf Yung-lu, and divulged the scheme for his de-

14 CHINA FROM WITHIN

struction, whereupon Yung-Iu hastened to Peking,
and " went at once into the Forbidden City to find
the Empress's favourite eunuch, the notorious Li
Lien-ying, ' the man with the false smile,' who was
Yung-lu's closest ally and fellow-conspirator for the
favour of the Empress Dowager. Yung-lu's tale
was soon told, and the eunuch immediately led
the way to the private apartments of the Em-
press Dowager. As soon as Yung-Iu had entered
the Empress Dowager's presence, he prostrated
himself, calling out, ' Save life ! your Majesty,
save life ! ' ' You are safe enough here, are you
not ? ' was the answer. ' Has any one followed
you into these precincts in search of your life i"
Come, rise up and state your business.' "

The story did not take long in telling.

The Empress arose, and swept into the Em-
peror's rooms.

After exposing the plot, and giving him a most
terrible rating, she ended up by saying, " You are,
after all, but an unsophisticated child. Return to
your inner apartments! It is evident that I must
resume control to save the Empire, which you, in
your extreme unwisdom and foolishness, seem to be
doing your best to drive to perdition. Oh, those
traitors ! those traitors ! " And fire flashed from
those keen, black-brown eyes, which palace offi-
cials, who have since narrated the above historical
incident, declare " only flash when she is about to
order men to their death."

THE EMPEROR AND REFORM

The Emperor was confined in his apartment

Then followed the reign of terror and blood-
shed. Under Yung-lu's advice, the Empress Dow-
ager commanded Li Lien-ying, the chief eunuch,
to arrest all the Emperor's eunuchs, drag them to
the Court of Criminal Jurisdiction, there, without
trial, to be beaten to death with staves — no swords
or dangerous weapons being allowed to be used in-
side the palace precincts by ancient law. Twenty-
three eunuchs met their fate there on the first day,
nineteen on the second, and eleven on the third day
after the events narrated above.

Elsewhere secret mandates were issued by the
Empress Dowager, branding the reformers as arch-
traitors, and ordering their arrest and summary
death wherever found within the jurisdiction of
the Empire.

Yung-lu and Li Lien-ying advised the Em-
press to put the Emperor to death. ' Do not be
too hasty,' replied the Empress. ' Keep your
sense. Above all, don't do anything before
memorializing me.' She ordered the assembly of
the Grand Council within two hours. It was
then agreed upon between the Empress Dowager,
Yung-lu, Princes Tuan and Ch'ing, that the Em-
press should take over the reins of government,
Las, owing to the weak state of the Emperor's
health, he was unable to bear the burden of the
f State.

"This was, of course, unknown to the Emperor;

i6 CHINA FROM WITHIN

but when the Empress sent her eunuch, Li Lien-
ying, to the Emperor's palace, demanding his own
seal, then Kuang-hsu felt at last that all was really
lost, and that his enemies were now intending to
use his own seals to carry on the reactionary
government now imminent." And how often since
that time "bogus edicts" have been issued in the
Emperor's name, edicts exactly opposite to his
known desires and aims ! Then was a policy
entered into by the so-called "Government" of
China, which had as its end nothing less than
the complete closing of the chapter of intercourse
between the "middle kingdom" and "outside bar-
barians," those in the interior should be driven to
the treaty ports, and from thence the foreigners
should be driven to their own lands, the conces-
sion land of treaty ports re-taken, and China
become a nation separate from all nations, dwell-
ing alone in her ample domain, maintaining for
ever, without change, the traditions and customs
of antiquity.

Chapter III
>THE REACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY

THE policy of the Empress Dowager and her
reactionary advisers was not long In deve-
loping itself. Wittiin three months of the coup
ddtat, an Imperial edict was issued by the Em-
press Dowager, on the 5th of November, 1898,
ordering the formation and organization of volun-
teer corps, as she said,' "to turn the whole nation
into an armed camp in case of need."

These volunteer corps were what has since be-
come known to Europe by the name of " Boxers."
The Chinese equivalent is three characters : " I,"
meaning " righteous " ; " volunteer," or " patriotic" ;
"ho," meaning "harmonious"; and^" ch'iian," mean-
ing "a fist," for which was sometimes substituted
" t'uan " — " a band " ; the idea of " fist " being that
of " compactness " ; the whole term meaning a body
or band of men compacted, or joined harmoniously
together, for patriotic ends. Their professed end
was the support of the present Manchu dynasty
and the expulsion of the foreigner. They were a

* Norlh China Herald, July 18, 1900.

1 8 CHINA FROM WITHIN

resuscitated body, having been condemned by Im-
perial decree in the reign of Chia-Ch'ing about
1810. They professed to be possessed by spirits
who gave them magical powers, and by the use
of certain charms and incantations gave out that
they were invulnerable to foreign bullet and sword.
It is common in China, when you ask a native
what religion he belongs to, to get the answer, "The
great religion." By this answer he means that
he is a follower of that blend of religions which
is professed by the vast majority of his country-
men, and which is a mixture of Confucianism,
Buddhism, and Taoism. A very common motto,
often seen inscribed in stone or carved in wood
over the doors of the gentry in China, is " The
three religions revert to one." The mind of the
average Chinese is so truly indifferent to matters
of religion, that he is quite content to be at the
same time a follower of three systems of religion,
which are inherently 'contradictory and mutually
antagonistic ; no fact proclaims more loudly that
these present troubles have not their origin in
matters of religion. The Government of China,
which openly patronizes three religions, which has
as subjects some 30,000,000 Mohammedans, besides
numerous secret sects, many of which are formed
with a view to the practice of virtue, and, as such,
permitted to flourish, which has legalised Christi-
anity and issued edicts speaking of its propagators
in appreciative terms, would not be likely to imperil

REACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY

■9

its existence over a quarrel about religion. "Let
in the Protestants," said Tseng Kuoh-fan, a great
Chinese patriot, who, with Gordon, overthrew the
T'aip'ing rebellion, " and let them fight it out with
the Roman Catholics." Such a remark would illus-
trate, in normal times, the attitude of the official
Chinese mind towards religion. It would be only
what was to be expected, then, that the Boxers
should profess themselves on the popular side, as
followers of " the great religion." Hence their
trinity of deities. They worshipped Kuan Ti, who
may be termed a Confucian god of war, and patron
guardian of the dynasty ; Kuan Ch'eng-tsi, an incar-
nation of Lao-tsi, the founder of the Taoist reli-
gion ; and the joyful Buddha, thus proclaiming

their allegiance to Buddhism.

They did not, however, spring into immediate
notice.

' On the i6th.of March. iSgg, the Buddhist Lama
Abbot gave a very large contribution to the special
fund raised for buying military supplies by the Em-
press Dowager, The head of the Taoist sect,
Pope Chang, later on had an interview with the
Empress Dowager, and counselled the slaughter of
the foreigner.

1^ " In the May and June of 1899 K'ang-yi visited
the different treaty ports, with the object of giving
explicit instructions to the different Viceroys and
Governors about the formation of Boxer corps.
ie set out with the high-sounding title of Impe-

ao CHINA FROM WITHIN

rial High Commissioner, but ere long even the
Chinese dubbed him Imperial High Extortioner.
Vast sums were extorted, and every day at that
time came fresh items of news regarding the pur-
chase and import of new and powerful armament.
As early as September 4th it was reported in the
Shanghai papers that the Boxers were preparing
and drilling for an anti-foreign movement."

" On the 28th of September an Imperial edict was
issued, ordering all civil and military officials to
strictly observe the ' Sixteen sacred edicts of
K'ang-hsi,* and also the ' Teachings of the Em-
peror Yung Cheng' against heresy and hetero-
doxy, and to set apart certain days every month
to explain the same to the masses." This would
be an edict in favour of Confucianism, for, in the
sacred edict of K'ang-hsi, Buddhism, Taoism and
Christianity (in the only form of it then Icnown
— Roman Catholic) are one and all condemned.

By this time the Boxers in Shantung had already
acquired a bad name, and were beginning to attract
notice. This was owing to the fact that a rabid
anti-foreign official was governor of the province.
His name was Yu-hsien. The previous governor
of the same province, Li P'ing-heng (degraded at
the request of the Germans because of the murder
of a Roman Catholic bishop and priest), having
taken a residence near the border of the province,
also stirred up much mischief. To show Yu-hsien 's
anti-foreign proclivities, the American missionaries

EACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY 21

in Shantung, in the capital of the province, vouch
for the truth of the following stories ' : —

" K'ung Shang-Iin, a Hanlin, prominent because
of his fondness for Western studies, was personally
censured by Yu-hsien thus : ' Why do you, a de-
scendant of Confucius, have anything to do with
foreign sects ? Do you purpose to become a foreign
devil yourself?' "

To Tuan ta-chi, an M.A., and student of English,
he said, " I was a friend of your father's, therefore
I exhort you, if you have any hope of official
preferment, to keep away from these foreigners.
Our Emperor has been bewitched by them, has
drunk their medicine, and, as is evident to all men,
has been injured by them,"

Again he censured a certain Yii tse-ta, who had
seen service in the Chinese consulate at New York,
in these terms: "You fellows who have gone abroad,
and your like, are responsible for these troubles.

► Foreigners had already ceased coming when you
encouraged them to come again, because unless
they were here you have no hopes of a place."

The same missionaries affirm that popular report
and rumour invariably classed Yii as favourable to
the Boxers, and hostile to everything foreign. It
was said his name was on the Boxer flags, his
troops secretly supplied them with arms ; when he
left Shantung large numbers of the Boxers along
I the roadside petitioned him to return. When he
* North China Herald, August 15, 1900.

22 CHINA FROM WITHIN

became governor all the natives agreed that the
" foreign sects " could no longer flourish. Later it
was affirmed that Yu had proposed that Christians
should be made to cut off their queues.

In their memorandum of forma! charges against
Yu-hsien the American missionaries at Chi nan Fu,
dated February 14th, 1900, mention the following
facts ; —

1. Yu refused to allow his subordinates to pro-
perly report to him concerning the uprising. Be-
cause of his attitude magistrates reported falsely or
not at all. Even Intendant Pan, who is at the
head of the foreign bureau in Chinan, had difificulty
in securing audience. At a serious period in the
early stages of the uprising he was told by Yii,
" These Church troubles are exceedingly difficult to
manage; do not bother me with them,"

2. Yii sent grossly false reports to Peking con-
cerning the uprising.

(a) In Yii's despatches of December ist and 3rd,
1899, to the Foreign Office, sent by the Office to
the American minister, Mr. Conger, he represents
the Christians at Han-chia-chuang as being the
aggressors, having set an ambush for the Boxers, to
attack them on their return home, and steal their
ponies. Entirely at variance with the governor's
statements we learn from the Roman Catholic
Bishop, Monseigneur de Marhi, and other sources,
the following to be the facts : — Boxers within a
radius of thirty miles, in numbers estimated at from

I Fo

|REACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY 23

ive to seven hundred, assembled near Han-chia-
:huang, a Roman Catholic village, with the express
purpose of looting it. The Christians there having
for several weeks previously seen their co-reli-
gionists in neighbouring counties subjected to mob
violence, without any hindrance from the officials,
had been compelled, from sheer necessity, to provide
for their own protection. They had encircled the
village with a ckeval-de-frise of the thorny date
tree, and had procured firearms. When attacked
by the Boxers they bravely and successfully re-
sisted.

(i5) In the same despatches Yii says, " I beg the
Foreign Office to tell Mr. Conger to instruct the
lissionaries to restrain and keep the native Chris-
.ns in order." Inasmuch as all the cases Yii refers
to pertain solely to the French and Italian mission
work, it is extremely misleading on the basis of
these cases, whether proved or not, to imply that
the American missionaries have been guilty of mis-
conduct As a matter of fact, the American mis-
sionaries continually impress upon their Chinese
converts that their acceptance of Christianity in no
wise permits them to disregard the laws of China.
So far as the Christians under our care are con-
cerned, it is manifestly exceedingly improbable that
they should indulge in any aggressive conduct.
They are so few in number, so widely scattered, and
so very weak in comparison with the Boxers, that
aggressive action would be disastrous. Moreover,

24 CHINA FROM WITHIN

they had been repeatedly instructed by the mis-
sionaries to avoid every possible occasion of offence,
consistent with a maintenance of Christianity, to
offer no resistance whatever to the Boxers, and
when they had reason to fear for their personal
safety, to get out of the way as quickly as possible.
That there has been no loss of life among our
converts, and little personal violence, is, in a mea-
sure, due to these instructions.

(c) In the same despatches YU reports "that
soldiers in Kao-t'ang and Po-p'ing are patrolling,
with strict orders to arrest rioters; that in missionary
cases immediate action is always taken ; day and
night every effort is put forth."

In view of the exceedingly small number of
arrests made, and the impunity with which the
Christians were pillaged in large numbers at this
time and subsequendy, the above statements must be
pronounced grossly false.

{d) Yii, in his memorial to the Throne, written
just as he was leaving Chinan, reported the
uprising as suppressed and quiet everywhere. Just
at this time Mr. Brooks (S.P.G.) was murdered by
Boxers only fifty-five miles from Chinan, and within
a radius of ten miles a band of Boxers, aggregating
three or four hundred men, was engaged in pillage,
arson, and extortion.

3. Yii, on his own initiative, seems to have done
nothing whatever in the way of antagonizing the
Boxers. All action or semblance of action on his

I REACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY 25

part was the result of pressure from the consular or
diplomatic body.

4. Yu not only did not himself antagonize the
Boxers, but at a critical stage of the movement he
degraded and censured officials who did antagonize
it. We desire to call particular attention to his
conduct in this respect. Whether due to ignorance
or intention, it could not but be construed as pro-
ceeding from sympathy with the Boxers, was so
considered by them, and resulted in perpetuating
and augmenting the rebellion when it gave promise
of collapse,

Yii tse-ta was appointed in March, 1899, as
magistrate of T'an-ch'eng hsien to cope with the
anti-foreign movement there. In the face of much
opposition, attended with no little danger to himself,
he took into custody six of the rioters. Yti-hsien
compelled the release of the rioters, condemned a
proclamation of the magistrate, and had him
cashiered on the ground of obstinacy and unfitness
for office. Ch'en, another magistrate, was treated
in a similar way. Of even graver consequence was
his degrading Yiian shih-k'ai for defeating the
Boxers in battle and dispersing them, Yii charging
Yuan with killing innocent people. This battle
took place at Shen-lun-tien in October. That some
spectators may have been killed in that contest is
:uite possible. The rioters had no distinctive
uniform, and crowds collect easily in China. It was,
however, a direct encouragement to the rebellion to

CHINA FROM WITHIN

act as Yu did. Moreover, Yii's record as prefect of
Ts'ao-chou Fu did not show him to be a man pecu-
liarly averse to bloodshed.

5. Yij, notwithstanding all the pressure from
Peking, made but a wretched pretence of suppres-
sing the uprising. Troops sent out in considerable
numbers aggravated the disorder by openly ex-
pressing sympathy with it. Save the arrest of a
few leaders and slight skirmishing, they did nothing.
It is generally believed, and on good authority, that
Yu prohibited the soldiers from fighting. What-
ever the orders may have been, the fact is beyond
controversy that the troops were inactive, and that
the rebellion was helped rather than hindered by
their presence. When Boxers were attacking the
Roman Catholic village, referred to above, provin-
cial troops, less than a mile distant, were merely
interested spectators of the attack. At Ta-chi
chuang Boxers looted thirteen families, spending
several hours there ; a squad of cavalry two miles
away did nothing, though the officials had been
previously notified that an attack on the Christians
was imminent.

6. Yu, in his own proclamations, and those of his
subordinates, repeatedly stated, directly and in-
ferentially, that there were a number of worthy men
engaged in the uprising ; that the drills they
practised were legitimate and beneficial, and that
the trouble was brought about by the misdeeds
of Christians, and that a spirit of revenge would

tt
I p,

* REACTIONARIES AND THEIR POLICY 27

naturally manifest itself. The proclamations, threat-
ening severe measures against the rioters, were
positively harmful, because no attempts were made
to carry out threats. Rev. John Murray, of Chi-
ning chou, states that " previous to the visit and
the proclamations of Governor Yii last August, we
were at rest, though our neighbours the Catholics
luffered on every side. After that we heard there
Would be the same fate for us, and it all came to
pass." The missionaries record, too, the letter of
Mr. Conger, American minister at Peking, ad-
dressed to them, in which he says : "There can be
little doubt that the late governor, YU-hsien, is very
largely, if not wholly, responsible for the whole
deplorable situation in Shantung." The terrible
part this murderer played when Governor of Shan-si,
is only what might have been expected from his
previous record.

3°

CHINA FROM WITHIN

November 21st, 1899, and thus use her paramount
authority to indoctrinate her people with what she
must have known was a lie, but yet with just such
a shadow of truth attached to it as should make the
document all the more credible to the Chinese.
Previous to this, the Government had issued in-
structions to the people in rhyme, telling them how
heavily the foreigners taxed those whom they ruled ;
this we remember having seen about August of the
same year.

The outcome of these documents and other in-
flammatory writings, was that the masses of China
were strongly incited to anti-foreign hatred. Every
one knows how deeply the masses resent anything
that touches their supposed rights. And here were
the masses of China being officially taught by those
in authority, that foreigners wanted to seize the
whole of China, take away all their rights, tax them
heavily, and make them a race of slaves.

We reproduce the mischievous edict in full.

* " Our Empire is now labouring under great
difificulties, which are becoming daily more serious.
The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-
like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavours
to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories.
They think that China, having neither money nor
troops, would never venture to go to war with them.
They fail to understand, however, that there are

' North China Herald, December 27, 1899.

INFLAMMATORY EDICTS 31

certain things which this Empire can never consent
to, and that, if hardly pressed upon, we have no
alternative but to rely upon the justice of our cause,
the knowledge of which in our breasts strengthens
our resolves, and steels us to present a united front
against our aggressors. No one can guarantee
under such circumstances who will be the victor,
and who the conquered, in the end. But there is
an evil habit, which has become almost a custom,
amongst our Viceroys and Governors, which, how-
ever, must be eradicated at all costs. For instance,
whenever these high officials have had on their
hands cases of international dispute, all their actions
seem to be guided by the belief in their breasts
that such cases would eventually be 'amicably
arranged.' These words seem never to be out of
their thoughts ; hence, when matters do come to
a crisis, they, of course, find themselves utterly
unprepared to resist any hostile aggressions on
the part of the foreigner. We, indeed, consider
this the most serious failure in the duty which the
high provincial authorities owe to the Throne, and
we now find it incumbent upon ourselves to censure
such conduct in the most severe terms.

" It is our special command, therefore, that should
any high official find himself so hard pressed by
circumstances, that nothing short of a war would
settle matters, he is expected to set himself reso-
lutely to work out his duty to this end. Or perhaps
it would be that war has already actually been

CHINA FROM WITHIN

declared ; under such circumstances, there is no
possible chance of the Imperial Government con-
senting to an immediate conference for the restora-
tion of peace. It behoves, therefore, that our
Viceroys, Governors, and Commanders-in-chief
throughout the whole Empire, unite forces and act
together without distinction, or particularising of
jurisdictions, so as to present a combined front to
the enemy, exhorting and encouraging their officers
and soldiers in person, to fight for the preservation
of their homes and native soil from the encroaching
footsteps of the foreign aggressor. Never should
the word ' Peace ' fall from the mouths of our high
officials, nor should they even allow it to rest for a
moment within their breasts. With such a country
as ours, with her vast area, stretching out several
tens of thousands of ' li,' her immense natural re-
sources, and her hundreds of millions of inhabitants,
if only each and all of you would prove his loyalty
to his Emperor and love of country, what, indeed,
is there to fear from any invader? Let no one
think of making peace, but let each strive to pre-
serve from destruction and spoliation his ancestral
home and graves from the ruthless hands of the
invader. Let these our words be made known to
each and all within our dominion."

The animus behind such a document is as patent
as is its unscrupulous language. It is most note-
worthy, too, that seizure of territory is practically

INFLAMMATORY EDICTS
the

the only grievance named, the missionary
trader not being hinted at.

Not less inflammatory was the next edict, issued
in December. It directed all the Viceroys to ener-
getically prepare for war against the foreigners, who
"like tigers were devouring the land." This,
again, was followed by a circular from the Chinese
Foreign Office, to Viceroys and Governors, in
which occurs the following passage : —

" This Office has received the special commands
of Her Imperial Majesty the Empress- Dowager,
and His Imperial Majesty the Emperor, to grant
you full power and liberty to resist by force of arms
all aggressions upon your several jurisdictions, pro-
claiming a state of war if necessary, without first
asking for instructions from Peking ; for this loss
of time may be fatal to your security, and enable
the enemy to make good his footing against your
forces. Finally, your Excellency will be responsible

I for any repetition of indecision, or too great trustful-
ness in the declaration of an encroaching enemy,
such as happened, for instance, to General Chang
kao-yuan in Shantung."

Could language be more mischief-making ? And
note again, it is the political action of seizing terri-
tory that is the source of grievance in the past, and

, fear for the future.

"The allusion to General Chang, who, it may

[ be remembered, was the officer in command of the
^ North China Htrald, August 15, 1900.

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Tsing-tao forts when the German fleet seized Kiao-
chou Bay, suffices to show the incendiary character
of the decrees. That they were seriously meant,
and that they meant even more than they said, was
speedily made apparent by the despatch of Imperial
officers to the maritime and Yang-tze provinces ; to
report on the measures taken for defence by the high
provincial authorities, and to ascertain what arms
and ammunition they still required to enable them
to carry out their instructions."

" The circulation of these decrees, and the inter-
pretations placed on them by the literati who read
them out at street corners, sent a wave of patriotic
excitement throughout the country. That the people
regarded them as an incentive to defiance, rather
than as an encouragement to legitimate defence, was
shown by the greater development which the Boxer
movement immediately took. Towards the end of
the year 1899 the Boxers became practically un-
controlled, and carried on their anti-foreign propa-
ganda into one province after another with a con-
nivance on the part of the authorities which was
scarcely disguised." The last day of the year saw
the cold-blooded murder of their first foreign victim
— Mr. Brooks, of the Society for the Propagation of
the Gospel.

Chapter V

FROM THE SECOND COUP D'ETAT TO
ANARCHY IN PEKING

EVER since the coup d'itat of September, 1898,
when the Emperor had to deliver up his own
seal to the Empress-Dowager, the various edicts
that have been issued in his name were in reality
the work of the Empress and her gang. The
I Emperor, true to reform, was a constant thorn in
I tile side of the reactionary party ; not a few of them
suggested his being done away with by poison, but,
as if guarded by a special providence, the Empress
would not permit this. However, his position as
Emperor was so far a menace to her retention of
supreme power, that she determined to depose him,
and choose out a baby sovereign from among the
Imperial clan. That she could do as she liked with
the people of China she fully believed, but she
thought it politic to sound the representatives of
foreign governments before committing herself. It
so happened that just at that time the country which
she feared would be most opposed to the deposition
of the Emperor — Great Britain — was entangled with
the war in South Africa. The news of the terrible

CHINA FROM WITHIN

reverses in December — Magersfontein, Stonnbei^,
Colenso — had reached the Imperial palace, and
had not a little to do with shaping events there.
"What!" they said, "can a few tens of thousands
of farmers, armed with good rifles and artillery, keep
such a world-power as Great Britain at bay ? What
should not China be able to do with as many hun-
dreds of millions of people as they had tens o(
thousands ? "

' The advisers of the Empress-Dowager, how-
ever, took care to arrange matters satisfactorily
with the Governments of France and Russia, who
signified that they would do nothing to oppose the
election of a new Emperor. " When the Empress-
Dowager was informed by Prince Ch'ing of the
success of his negotiations, she stamped her foot on
the ground and cried, ' Good ! Great Britain,
then, can do nothing against us.' To this Prince
Ch'ing replied in a contemptuous tone, ' The fools !
What if they do try to interfere? We are not
afraid ; we are now well prepared for every eventu-
ality. What can they do just now, any way ?
Nothing ! Your Majesty must know that Great
Britain is nowhere now!' 'Then,' said the Em-
press-Dowager, 'that, of course, settles it,' and the
deposition accordingly took place."

This second coup d'Hat was in January, 1900.

The child which the Empress- Dowager had
selected to put on the throne, in place of the lawful
' North China Herald^ January 30, 1900.

FROM COUP D'ETAT TO ANARCHY 37

Emperor, was a little boy of some four or five years
of age, Pu-chun by name. His father was Prince
Tuan,the notorious leaderof the Boxers, whose father,
the fifth son of the old Emperor, Tao-Kuang, had
been dismissed from the Imperial clan for disgrace-
ful conduct. Not only did the Empress- Dowager
want to depose the lawful Emperor, she would also
have the twenty-six years of his legal reign ignored,
and counted to have been an interregnum ! But
the shrewd woman had miscalculated. Telegrams
and protests from Chinese and Manchus rained in
upon her from all sides. Seeing that she had raised
a storm that could not be weathered, she changed
front, and avowed that she had never wanted to
depose the Emperor, but only to provide an heir for
the succession, seeing that Kuang-hsii was himself
without male Issue ! Her action was deeply resented
— the disgraceful treatment of the popular young
Emperor at her hands brought odium upon her.
It was necessary she should find a scapegoat, the
popular fury must be diverted ; let it fall on the
heads of the Christians !

To quote the words of Dr. Morrison, in his
masterly account of the siege of the Peking Lega-
tions, published in Tke Times oi Ocloh^r 13th and
15th, 1900 : —

The Boxer Society, being anti-Christian and
inti-foreign, was pampered as patriotic in its aims,
and loyal in its constitution. Besides, its appearance

the metropolitan province opportunely coincided

CHINA FROM WITHIN

with a state of unrest that had become alarming.
There was famine in the land, no rain had fallen.
The winter wheat had failed, the spring wheat could
not be sown, and 95 per cent, of the land was un-
tilled. The price of grain had risen, and there was
widespread misery and discontent. The feeling
arose that these misfortunes were attributable to the
enmity of high heaven, offended by the usurpation
of the Empress-Dowager, and the deposition from
all real power of the Son of Heaven, the rightful
Emperor. At this juncture the society entered the
province. Its propaganda spread like wildfire.
' It is the foreigners who are eating the country. It
is the foreign reUgion which has called down upon
China the wrath of heaven. It is the cursed foreign
railways and telegraphs which have diverted the
good influence from on high.' Resentment against
the Empress- Dowager was turned into wrath against
the foreigner and fury against his religion. Thus
the wily woman diverted from herself the popular
clamour. She encouraged the growth of the Boxer
train bands, seeing in them possible means of pro-
tection for her dynasty, and she fanned the wrath
against the Christians by cunningly devised edicts,
comparing Boxers with Christians, to the disadvan-
tage of the latter. Grave insinuations against the
Christians grew into open attacks, culminating in an
Imperial decree ordaining their extermination."

During the early months of 1900 the Boxer move-
ment developed apace. Princes of the blood and

FROM COUP D'ETAT TO ANARCHY 39

the highest Ministers of State were in league with
their leaders. To quote Dr. Morrison again : —

" In April the Boxers were everywhere in evi-
dence. Boys were being drilled, and were being
armed with knives and swords. Knives had already
risen to double their usual value, and cutlers were
reaping a harvest. Anti-foreign literature was being
sold in the streets. Christian servants were being
warned that they were ' doomed men.' Yet those
who were not missionaries regarded the movement
with contempt."

" In May the drought continued and the excite-
ment grew. It was reported that 8,000,000 men
were to descend from heaven and exterminate the
foreigners. Then rain would come. Christians had
offended the gods by following the devil's religion,
and Heaven's wrath had been incurred, no rain had
been sent, and thousands were starving. To in-
flame the ignorant still more against the foreigner,
it was reported that foreigners were poisoning the
wells. Then the crusade began in the southern part
of the province against the native Christians. They
were to be first attacked, and when they had been
exterminated the white men were to be ended.
Heartrending stories came from the province of
murders of native Christians, of the pillaging and
burning of Christian property."

Meanwhile, the soldiery had openly gone over to
le Boxers, " the anti-foreign rabble of General

ung-fuh-hsiang openly fraternized with them, being

CHINA FROM WITHIN

addressed by them in affectionate terms as ' blood
brothers.' Foreigners, who had friends among the
Chinese, received private warning to leave Peking :
their lives were in danger. Gardeners and washer-
men went into hiding. Teachers and servants ran
away into the country. It was becoming unsafe for
the Chinese to work for the foreigner."

On the 28th of May, the destruction of the rail-
way between Peking and Paoting-Fu began. And
on the next day the French engineers were rescued
— a party consisting of thirteen men, nine women,
and seven children — by the great bravery of M, and
Madame Chamot, who, with four or five others, went
out of Peking some fifteen miles, and brought them
back the same day.

" This prompt and daring rescue," says Dr. Mor-
rison, " was one of the best incidents of the siege,"

" Peking was becoming more excited day by day.
Foreigners were assailed with stones by Imperial
soldiers 'sent to protect foreigners.' The foreign
guards were sent for. On the last day of May they
arrived, to the number of 340 men."

In the meantime, a party of thirty, trying to
escape by river from Paoting to Tientsin, were
waylaid, several of them murdered : the others
escaped only by continual fighting for their lives,
getting to Tientsin more dead than alive. June 2nd
brought the shocking news that two more members
of the S.P.G, had been brutally murdered. "Mr.
Robinson had been first killed, but Mr. Norman

i litt

FROM COUP D'ETAT TO ANARCHY 41

^ad succeeded in fleeing for refuge to the residence
" the magistrate, and by him was given up to the
fury of the mob and done to death."

On the 6th of J une an edict was issued. It caused
"profound indignation." The last words were,
"Christians and Boxers alike are one and all the
little children of the Throne, and we regard them
fWith an equal love, which in no way discriminates

:tween the Boxer and the Christian ! " And this
in spite of wholesale massacre, and fiendish cruelties
perpetrated by Boxers on Christians, under the
direct orders of the very scoundrels who made out
this proclamation t

" In the country disaffection spread to the dis-
tricts east of Pelting, and the position of the
American missionaries at Tung-Chou became one
of great danger. They asked for an escort, but
Mr. Conger felt himself compelled to decline one,
on the ground that he did not venture to send the
same body of men that he could spare from the
Legation through so dangerous a district. What
soldiers could not be sent to do, one fearless Ameri-
can missionary succeeded in doing. Late in the
evening of June 7tli, the Rev. W. S. Ament, of the
American Board Mission, left Peking in a cart, and
with twenty other carts journeyed fourteen miles to
Tung-Chou, through a country palpitating with ex-
citement It was an act of courage and devotion
that seemed to us who knew the country a deed of
heroism. He brought safely back with him to

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Peking the whole missionary body then in Tung-
Chou — five men, including Dr. Arthur Smith, the
gifted author of Chinese Characteristics, eleven
ladies, and seven children, together with their Chris-
tian servants."

Another magnificent act of bravery was the rescue
of Father d'Addosie, his two colleagues, a French
brother, five sisters of charity, and some twenty
native nuns from the south cathedral. The rescuers
were M. Fliche of the French Legation, accom-
panied by M. Chamot and his heroic wife.

On the loth. the Boxers had their "first public
official recognition," in Prince Tuan being appointed
head of the Chinese Foreign Office. That same day
Admiral Seymour started from Tientsin, with i,8oo
marines and bluejackets of various nationalities, for
the rescue of the Legations.

The nth of June saw the first bloodshedding of
a foreigner in Peking.

"On that day, Sugiyama,^ the Japanese Chan-
cellor, attempted to leave Peking by the Yungting
gate, in order to meet Admiral Seymour's relief
force, which was known to be on its way to the
capital from Tientsin, and which was apparently
expected to reach Peking that day. When he
arrived at the Yungting gate, he was accosted by
a number of Tung-fuh-hsiang's men, who were
guarding It. Prince Tuan had that day given
secret orders that no foreigner was to be allowed
^ North China Herald^ August 8, 1900.

FROM COUP D'ETAT TO ANARCHY 43

either lo leave the city or enter it. He was there-
fore stopped, and asked who he was. Sugiyama
told them that he was a member of the Japanese
Legation. ' Are you the Japanese minister ? ' ' No,
I am only a Chancellor of the Legation.' ' Then
what right have you, a petty officer like that, to ride
in such a high official's cart ? ' So they pulled him
out of his cart, and began to mob the unlucky Chan-
cellor. Sugiyama then demanded to be brought
before General Tung-fuh-hsiang. ' What ! you to
speak to our great general ! Why, you are too in-
significant to have such an honour ! ' At last, how-
ever, a red-buttoned Kansuh officer appeared on
the scene, to whom Sugiyama appealed for help.
Instead of doing so, the ruffian merely ordered the
Japanese Chancellor's head to be struck off, as a
sacrifice to their war banner, and stuck near the
gate, ' for trying to break out of Peking.* Tung-
fuh-hsiang was publicly congratulated next day by
Prince Tuan for this dastardly murder."

The i2th, 13th, and 14th, were terrible days of
massacre. The city resounded with the cries of the
Boxers, " Kill the foreigner ! " and the shrieks and
groans of Christians being murdered. Thousands
were put to cruel death in the city. Millions of
pounds of property were ruthlessly destroyed by
fire. "During the awful nights of the 13th and
14th, Duke Lan, the brother of Prince Tuan, and
Chao-shu-chiao, of the Foreign Office, had followed
I round in their carts to gloat over the spectacle.

CHINA FROM "WITHIN

Yet the Manchu government were afterwards to
describe this massacre, done under official super-
vision under the very walls of the Imperial palace,
as the handiwork of local banditti."

On the r3th, the Boxers attacked the Austrian
Legation and the Methodist Episcopal compound.
They were dispersed at both places, at the latter
by a bayonet charge of marines. Meanwhile, in the
Imperial palace, counsels of madmen were the only
counsels that gained a hearing. The Empress de-
cided to convene a General Council in the Imperial
palace, for discussing and deciding on the Hne of
action to be pursued. It will be handed down to
all time as the most iniquitous Council that has ever
disgraced a country laying claim to civilization. It
was held on the i6th of June.

^
^

THE GRAND COUNCIL IN THE PALACE

THE following graphic account of this Council
was given by a Peking official who was him-
self an eye-witness of what he relates. The account
was copied from the North China Heraldoi August
8, 1900. into the Standard and other papers. It is
too interesting not to be reproduced here ; —

"On June 16 the Empress-Dowager suddenly
issued a decree summoning all the Manchu princes,
3ukes, nobles, and high (Chinese and Manchu) offi-
cials of the Six Boards and Nine Ministries to be
present at a Grand Council to be held at once in
the palace. The suspicious part of this was that,
when all had gathered at the palace, those who
were Manchus were first called by the Empress-
Dowager to a secret audience, while all of Chinese
descent were left in the waiting-room. After the
Manchus had ended their secret Council, and had
come back to the waiting-room, they were again
cjiHed back — this time with those of Chinese
descent — into the Empress - Dowager's Council-
1. When all had prostrated themselves before

CHINA FROM WITHIN

the Empress- Dowager and Emperor, they waited
for her to speak first.

" She said : ' The foreign Powers have brow-
beaten and persecuted us in such a manner that we
cannot endure this any longer. We must, there-
fore, combine to fight all foreigners to the last, to
save our " face " in the eyes of the world. All our
Manchu princes, dukes and nobles, and ministers,
high and low, are unanimous in this determination
for war to the knife, and 1 approve of their patriotic
choice. I therefore give you all this announce-
ment, and expect all to do their duty to their
country,'

" Upon this Hsu Ching-ch'eng (Chinese), ex-
Minister to Russia, President of the Manchurlan
Railway, etc., knelt forward before the Empress-
Dowager, and begged her to reconsider her deci-
sion, as there were many things to be considered
before such a feat as fighting all the foreign
Powers could possibly be thought of Hereupon
K'ang-yi [sharply interrupted : ' You are mistaken.
This will not be like our former wars with foreign
countries. We have now the Boxers with us.
They are invulnerable" to bullet or sword, and we
will simply walk over the enemy this time ! '

" Yuan-ch'ang (Chinese), a former Taotai of
Wuhu, and now a Minister of the Foreign Office,
then said : ' Your Majesty, I myself was an eye-
witness of the prowess of these Boxers after
attacking the Foreigners, for living myself near by,

THE GRAND COUNCIL

I went out in plain clothes to see their late battle-
field. I saw the whole place filled with the bodies of
dead Boxers — chiefs and head men too ! With my
own eyes I saw that every one of them had a bullet
or two in their breasts or backs. That, Your Majesty,
does not prove K'ang-yi's boast of the Boxers being
invulnerable to bullets ! ' The Empress-Dowager :
'You must be mistaken. The bodies you saw must
have been those of local outlaws. It is impossible
that they were Boxers.' This closed Yuan-ch'ang's
mouth, who dared not go further in contradiction of
his mistress. Then Ts^ng Kuang-lan (Chinese),
Marquess Tsdng (son of the late Minister to Great
Britain), himself brought up and educated in Eng-
land, went forward and knelt before the Empress-
Dowager, saying : ' I beg Your Majesty to recon-
sider your decision. If we must fight, we ought
not to fight in such an indiscriminate manner.
How can we fight successfully the whole world ?
We should choose our enemies. We have also a
number of countries who have always been friendly
with us, and against whom we have not the least
complaint. Are we to fight them also ? Above
all, I pray Your Majesty to protect the Legations.
These must be our first care and duty, whatever we
may afterwards do.' Others of the Chinese party
also spoke in the same strain. They saw all the
Manchus present but one {Na Tung, Minister of the
Foreign Office) were determined on war, and look-
ing daggers at the speakers of the Chinese party,

5°

CHINA FROM WITHIN

and destruction of the country imminent. His
Majesty was going on to say something more,
but seemed to pull himself suddenly up, for, in-
stead of listening to His Majesty, as Court
etiquette required, the Empress- Dowager openly
affronted the Emperor by ignoring his words and
turning her back on His Majesty. This was the
last stroke on the Chinese party, whose words were
simply drowned in the uproar of the Manchus, who
unanimously shouted for war to the knife, and who
looked with deep hate on their Chinese colleagues,
whom they now considered as enemies and traitors
to their cause.

"This turn of affairs prevented the Chinese
party from resuming their peace arguments with
the Empress- Dowager for some time. Their aim
was to get her to issue a decree for the dispersal
first, and, if opposed, the suppression of the whole
Boxer body in the country. Without military
power themselves, their only hope lay in Yuan
Shih-Kai, Governor of Shantung, and General
Nieh, the only Chinese Commandants of corps who
would be able to obey the Empress- Dowager's
Decree, and enable the Chinese party to push their
policy of destroying the Boxers, overawe the turbu-
lent Manchus, and restore peace to the country ;
but Prince Tuan and K'ang-yi checkmated all the
moves of the Chinese party, and matters looked
very black that day. There was no more discipline
observed in the city after that day amongst the

THE GRAND COUNCIL

^
^

crowds of armed Boxers, Kansu troops, and the
Manchu soldiers of Yung-lu's headquarters com-
mand, the Middle Corps of the Wuwei Army, or
the ' Grand Army of the North.' All was confusion
from that date.

The Manchu party presented themselves at the
palace on the 21st of June, the day after the murder
of the German Minister, and got the Empress-
Dowager to issue a decree to Yung-lu, as
Generalissimo of the Grand Army of the North,
commanding him to bring in his army into Peking
and formally attack the Legations, destroy them,
and then, leaving Peking for Tien-tsin, to destroy
the foreigners there, and so on until all were driven
into the sea{!) just as the Empress- Dowager was
about to give her consent to the writing of such a
decree the Emperor interposed, and, prostrating
himself before her, and in a voice broken with
emotion and despair, besought her to pause before
sending Government troops to attack the Legations,
thereby formally setting her seal of approval on
what had gone on before against the foreign
Powers, plunging the whole Empire into war, and
putting matters beyond recall.

*"If I, alone,' cried His Majesty in despairing
accents, ' were to suffer and die as a consequence of
what you have done and intend by-and-by to do,
gladly would I die the death in atonement for the
catastrophe you design for China ; but I beseech
Your Imperial Majesty, the Empress- Dowager, to

5»

CHINA FROM WITHIN

pause before you destroy millions of my poor, un-
offending subjects throughout the Empire. What
have they, I ask Your Majesty, done to merit the
calamity that will be in store for them by the fata!
steps you and your counsellors intend to take ? I
beseech Your Majesty to stop before it becomes too
late. 1 pray you to reconsider your decision before
launching on a policy which will endanger the very
foundations of the Empire which my forefathers
handed down to me to nourish and to protect from
harm. 1 would rather die ten thousand deaths than
see all the sufferings that are in store for my mjTiads
of unfortunate subjects.' Here His Majesty broke
down utterly. His despairing words would have
touched a heart of stone, but, alas ! the Empress-
Dowager merely cast a look of contempt on the
Emperor, drew back her robe and looked away,
utterly ignoring the prostrate Emperor, who, when
saying his last words, had impulsively moved for-
ward a step and clutched the hem of his Imperial
Aunt's robe, the picture of helpless despair and
impotence. It only required Prince Tuan, who
stood near the throne with his Manchus, to address
in a loud tone, and the Empress-Dowager to say,
with a contemptuous shrug of the shoulders, ' What
does His Majesty the Emperor know about such
things, any way.^' to break utterly the heart and
opposition of the unfortunate Emperor. His
Majesty at once rose and, weeping, left the Council
Chamber.

THE GRAND COUNCIL

" Prince Tuan, K'ang-yi, Ch'i Hsiu, and the
other Manchu friends of the Boxers appeared to
breathe more freely, for they had fears, when the
Emperor was making his passionate appeal for his
people, thai the Empress-Dowager might have
hesitated to order into Peking the Government
troops of Yung-Iu to attack their enemies in the
Legations. The fatal decree was then speedily
passed, no one amongst the Chinese party present
daring after this to open his mouth in favour of
staying proceedings. That same afternoon Yung-
lu's advanced corps crowded into Peking, bringing
their field and machine guns with them, and every
one of them armed with the best modern magazine
rifle."

" For his reform tendencies and anxiety to pre-
serve peace with foreign nations, the Emperor has
been accused by the Manchus of being a Christian,
and a traitor to the traditions of his race."

It fared ill with the brave Chinese Hsu Ching-
ch'^ng and Yiian-ch'ang, that they took the stand
they did that day against the Manchu war party.
About a month after they were done to death with-
out trial.^ "The execution itself shows, that what
• we vaguely call the Government at Peking is really
nothing but anarchy ; the two unfortunate patriots
were done to death on July 28th without the know-
ledge of any member of the Grand Council, except
Prince Tuan and K'ang-yi." The Imperial decree

' North China Herald, August 8, 1900.

CHINA FROM WITHIN

of July 29 speaks of their "evil reputation" and
"traitorous ambition," and gives out that they were
beheaded.

This is probably the truth. Though the cor-
respondent of the Standard'^ gives as their crime
that, in sending on the bloody edict agreed upon in
the Grand Council to exterminate all foreigners, to
the Yangtse Viceroys, Hsu and Yiian had, on their
own initiative, altered " exterminate " to "protect."
He adds : "They were sent for, and confessed that
they could not, knowing the issues it involved,
despatch such a decree to the Yangtse Viceroys,
and so at the peril of their lives had so acted.
They were sawn in half the same afternoon. This
is the genial old lady who kissed Lady Macdonald
and Mrs. Conger, and continually repeated, ' All
one family, all one family ! ' " *

This last refers to the Empress- Dowager, after
the first coup dHat of September, 1898, having
invited the wives of the Ambassadors to the palace,
when she treated them in the manner stated. It
was a clever ruse to gain "face" after committing
an unconstitutional act.

M. Pichon, the French Ambassador, has yet
another story, that Hsii with one other were chiefly
guilty of having bought a coffin for the German
Minister, assassinated by the precise order of Tung
fuh-hsiang. Yiian and two others were accused of

* October 16, 1900.

* Standard, No^'cmber 10, igoo.

THE GRAND COUNCIL

coolness in the attempts at massacre of which
foreigners were the object !

And now as to the Councils and their outcome —
the edict for the extermination of foreigners in
China.

Note, firstly, the reason given by the Empress
for the whole Manchu party having come to such a
terrible decision — " the browbeating and persecution
of China by the foreign Powers."

Secondly, what an example is given of the three
banes of the Chinese Government — pride, ignor-
ance, and superstition.

Thirdly, the depth of fanatical hatred revealed in
such a decree.

The first and last points we will reserve to another
chapter. As to the second, see first the pride, the
arrogant pride, which could so blind the authorities
of China, as to make them believe they could defy
the whole civilized world. Think of the monumental
ignorance involved, and then observe the superstition
in the matter of the "invulnerable" Boxers. Li
Hung Chang, in trying to make excuses for his
mistress, pointedly brings this forward, " She had
bad advisers, and believed the Boxers were invul-
nerable." As if to say, if they had been invulner-
able, and as a consequence every foreigner in China
had been massacred, she would have been justified
in the course she took !

We are inclined not to accept the statement of the
correspondent of the Standard, that the patriots

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Hsu and Yiian in transmitting the edict to the
Yangtse Viceroys, ordering the "extermination of
all foreigners," altered the word "exterminate" to
" protect." There are inherent improbabilities in the
story. Moreover, we have the certain proof from
missionaries in the far interior that the edict came
to their provinces. In the case of far away Yiin-
nan, the bloody edict arrived, followed a fortnight
later by an edict to protect them. This latter edict
would come in useful for saving somebody's " face,"
after all the missionaries in that province had been
murdered, and would also be a result of the Chinese
forces being defeated by the Allies. Of course, in
the case of some provinces, the Viceroys and
Governors ignored the edict, when it came : but in
the case of others, it was far different. This fact,
however, must be recorded by the future historian ;
That bet ween June 20t h and 25M, 1^00 , edicts were
issued by the Central Authority of the Government
of China, ordering the indiscriminate massacre and
extermination of all foreigners in the country.
Ambassadors, merchants, missionaries, foreigners in
Government employ, whether such as the Belgian
railway engineers, or such as Sir Robert Hart, for
forty years the faithful friend of China, who by his
phenomenal powers of administration had created
the Customs Service, bringing ^^^5, 000,000 yearly to
her failing revenues — men, women, children, all were
to be sacrificed, in one common hecatomb, on the
altar of Manchu hatred.

THE GRAND COUNCIL

However, let us dwell a little on a pleasanter side,
and note the courageous and humane conduct of
Tuan-fang, Acting-Governor of Shen-si province.
Strangely enough he was a Manchu. It only shows
there are Manchus and Manchus, and that too
sweeping generalizations, as to the character of the
Tartars, cannot be made. We are again indebted
to the North China Herald, which publishes the
following from its Hsi-an Fu correspondent — the
city where Tuan-fang was resident, as being the
capital of the province, and now, forsooth, the so-
called capital of China. Let the three excellent
propositions at the end of the quotation be well
noted.

' " The interim Manchu Governor of Shen-si,
Tuan-fang, has so protected the lives and property
of some eighty foreigners that, humanly speaking,
it is owing to his care that they are now alive.

"When the edicts of the 20th to the 25th of
June, that gave Imperial sanction to the murder of
foreigners, reached Hsi-an Fu, that humane Governor
was so distressed that he wept in the presence of
other high officials, and could neither eat nor sleep
for some time. He immediately suppressed these
drastic edicts, and issued stringent orders that at
any cost and all hazard order was to be maintained.

" When the Boxers made a determined attempt to
effect a rising, Governor Tuan sent his mounted
bodyguard and seized and beheaded the ringleaders
• North China Herald, August, 1900,

CHINA FROM WITHIN

of the ' Righteous-Harmony-Fists.' When huge
placards were secretly posted, charging foreigners
with the drought and distress in the province and
calling upon patriotic volunteers to join in exter-
minating the foes of their peace and prosperity, the
Governor, within a few hours, had these inflamma-
tory posters torn down, and counter-proclamations
took their place.

"When a number of men who were professedly
praying for rain assembled to ruin the property and
possibly take the life of a Swedish missionary, the
Governor had the premises guarded by a cordon of
cavalry that galloped to the place.

"When several parties of missionaries were leaving
for Hankow he voluntarily telegraphed to the Vice-
roy Chang to meet and protect the travellers. He
further sent his own bodyguard to escort the mis-
sionaries. As their route passed through the north-
west of Honan, he commanded the Shen-si escort
not to leave the missionaries until they were met by
the escort from Chang Chih-tung.

" The vigilance and humanity of this energetic and
enlightened Manchu Governor ought to be publicly
known, and I hope may, in some way, be hereafter
officially acknowledged.

" The public spirit and prompt action of men like
the Viceroys Chang and Liu, and Governor Tuan
demonstrate, it seems to me, the following proposi-
tions : —

" I. That the high officials are not only legally and

THE GRAND COUNCIL

technically according to Chinese law, but really and
morally responsible for the lawlessness and massacre
that have taken place in various provinces.

"2. That it is not the creationofother and different
authorities, but the guaranteed exercise of those
already in existence, that is needed for the main-
tenance of law and order.

" 3. That whenever and wherever the provincial
authorities exercise their authority in the cause of
law and order, serious rioting and massacre become
practically impossible."

May the hope expressed " that the humanity of
this enlightened Manchu Governor may be publicly
known, and officially acknowledged" be fulfilled
indeed ! If, by any means, he may emerge from the
hands of the "brigands" now at Hsi-an Fu, with his
head on his shoulders !

Chapter VII
THE POWER OF DARKNESS

THE story of Councils in the last chapter
ranges between June i6th and June 21st.
There were, however, one or two deeply important
events which took place between those dates and
a few days after the latter date.

The Taku Forts were bombarded and taken on
the 17th of June. It was soon known in Peking,
and goaded the Manchus there to fresh acts of
madness. The policy of " war to the knife with
the foreigner" had been already declared in the
Grand Council, held on the 1 6th— the day previous.
Acting on a God-given judgment, the admirals
had decided matters were so suspicious, they must
act, and secure their "base." Had they not done
so, what foreigner then in Peking and Tientsin
would now be in the land of the living ?

On the 20th of June occurred the planned murder
of Baron von Ketteler, German Ambassador, by
an Imperial officer. Here we quote Dr. Morrison.
" Mr. Cordes, Secretary to the German Legation,
who accompanied Baron von Ketteler, was at the
same time grievously wounded, but escaped as if .

THE POWER OF DARKNESS 6i

ly miracle." Mr. Cordes after made these state-

lents to Dr. Morrison.
■' I was sent to the Chinese Foreign Office by

laron von Ketteler on the 19th of June, to get
' Tung-fuh-hsiang's Kansu troops removed from
their unpleasant proximity. The Secretary told
me there had been a great change in the position.
The foreign admirals had taken the Taku Forts,

id it would be very hard to keep the Chinese
troops in hand. At five o'clock the same day the
ultimatum of the Chinese Foreign Office was sent
to the ministers, giving them twenty-four hours to
leave Peking. Hoping that China would still be
amenable to reason, Baron von Ketteler sent a
note, asking for an interview with the princes and
ministers of the Foreign Office at 9 a.m. next day.
On the morning of the 20th, no word having come
from the Foreign Office, Baron von Ketteler and
I set out in two chairs. After passing the Arch
of Honour, I saw a sight that made my heart stand
still. A banner soldier, apparently a Manchu, in
full uniform, with a mandarin's hat with a button
and blue feather, stepped forward, presented his
rifle within a yard of the chair window, and fired,
I shouted ' Halt ! ' The chairs were thrown down.
I sprang to my feet. A shot struck me in the
lower part of the body. Dripping with blood I
dragged myself along, often down crowded streets,
filled with Chinese, who witnessed my struggle
^without pity, and without even replying to my

CHINA FROM WITHIN

question as to the direction. I overheard one
man remark ' A foreigner who has got his deserts ! '
Then in a quiet road a pedlar gave me the direction,
and in half an hour after the murder of my minister
I reached the American Mission, and fell fainting
at the entrance."

Mr. Cordes, in conclusion, said, " 1 affirm that
the assassination of the German minister wa$_ a
deliberately planned, premeditated murder, done
in obedience to the orders of high Government
officials, by an Imperial bannerman."

" The Government sent an impudent despatch
to the German Legation, to the effect that two
Germans had been proceeding in chairs ; at the
mouth of the street leading to the Foreign Office,
one of them had fired upon the crowd. The Chinese
had retaliated, and he had been killed !

"Weeks passed before the body was recovered,
and it was not until July iSth that any official refer-
ence was made to the murder.

" The ministers were invited to remain in Peking.
At 4 p.m. — the very hour given in the ultimatum
for them to leave their Legations — precisely to the
minute, by preconcerted signal, the Chinese opened
fire upon the Austrian and French outposts. A
French marine fell, shot dead through the forehead.
An Austrian was wounded. The siege had begun."

Meanwhile, Tientsin had been " fighting for its
life" for days. James Watt, of Tientsin, accompanied
by a few Cossacks, by a daring night ride to

THE POWER OF DARKNESS

Taku, through country infested with the enemy —
a deed of valour that was the salvation of thousands
— was able to give information as to affairs in
Tientsin. Reinforcements were hurried forward.
Tientsin was relieved on the 24th.

Admiral Seymour, who had, in his heroic attempt
to reach the Legations, lost 300 men killed and
wounded out of 1,800, was relieved by the Russians
not far from Tientsin on the 26th.

By this time the edict for the extermination of
foreigners had been flashed by the electric wire
into the capitals of all the eighteen provinces. Its
reception in one of these we have already noticed.
There was one province in particular whose Governor
had a heart that was the very soil for such diabolical
seed. The province was Shan-si, the Governor
Yii-hsien. We can picture the satanic smile that
passed over his face as the fateful document was
handed to him. Doubtless some such thoughts as
these passed through his mind. " I have often
wanted to slay every foreigner within my grasp,
but have never till now had Imperial commands to
do so." He did not let the grass grow under his
feet. The edict was forwarded by horse-courier,
in some cases by telegraph, to every city of the
first, second, and third order in the province.
Hitherto it had been the most friendly of provinces;
no foreigner had ever been injured there ; within a
few weeks over one hundred missionaries and many

«4 CHINA FROM WITHIN

children had been massacred. Others, escaping
with their lives, had to submit to barbarities, to
which death would have been a trifle. Seldom has
there been a more terrible example of the amount
of harm that may be done by one bad man in a
place of power.

We reserve the story of the massacres in Shan-si
to another chapter — here we subjoin an article
entitled "One Chinese Massacre," by Mrs. Archi-
bald Little, author of Intimate China, and so well
known for her love of the Chinese people, and her
philanthropic efforts to deliver Chinese women and
children from the cruel and revolting custom of
footbinding. The measure advocated at the end
of the letter, to raze the walls of Peking to the
ground, is the opinion of one whose word is at
least entitled to attention; it is a question, however,
whether it would be feasible, or helpful.

" A massacre in some part of China of which one
has never heard before, whose name one cannot
remember when one has heard it, and of people one
does not know! How litde effect it produces upon
the mind! What, nine killed! Oh, how shocking!
But think of the thousands killed in South Africa I
And people drink their morning coffee unmoved.

" They probably drank it too that July morning in
K'uchowfu. There was trouble in the city, as there
was in many Chinese cities in July, 1900, and the
last letter from one of the ladies — a cheery, chatty
letter — expressed some anxiety about their spoons.

THE POWER OF DARKNESS

^
^

Where should they be hidden in case of an attack ?
Yet she thought she knew a place ! There were
two ladies living together, one elder and one young
— the elder, English, Miss Sherwood; the young girl,
American, Miss Manchester. It was the elder lady
who was troubled about the spoons. Close beside
them lived Mr. and Mrs. Thompson and their two
youngest children. The 21st of July came — I re-
member that day, because in our parts also there
was said to be trouble, and I was carried into the
city in an open sedan chair, thinking it would do
the people good to see an English lady going about
as usual, and not looking at all afraid! In K'u-
chowfu City there came a little gathering of people
from afar — Vegetarians, the same sect that caused
the Kucheng massacre. They came up to the
house, and Mr. Thompson, standing out on the
verandah, tried to reason with them, but in vain,
till at last he felt obliged to take his wife and
children to the Taotai's official residence for pro-
tection ; whilst the two ladies took refuge in the
house of some kindly, though heathen, Chinese near
by until they too could be fetched to the Taotai's.
And the sun shone, while the people plundered the
two European houses,

"Then, to the horror of the suppliants, theTaotai
sent out word he could do nothing. He had few
soldiers — he knew the state of excitement in which
the people were — especially these strangers who
had come into the city, and he refused to see the

CHINA FROM WITHIN

European. Accounts differ, of course, but one story
has it that, for the space of one hour, the unhappy-
husband and wife waited in the entry court of the
Taotai's Yamen, afraid to go out, unable to gain an
entrance. What were the thoughts that passed
through their hearts, what words passed between
the husband and wife — the father and mother — of
their duty at that hour of suspense ? The Httle
children probably wondered and got tired. They
had not long to wait, for at last, as in despair, Mr.
Thompson battered at the door. Again the answer,
'The Great Man refuses to see you,' and a sign
from behind to the populace of cutting off a head,
signifying you may do what you like with him. A
blow from behind, a shower of bricks! But this
Englishman, who had for ten years gone in and out
among them doing good to all, was really killed by
those cruel three-pronged forks carried in ofificial
processions, and which are commonly supposed to
be used to catch and rend the clothes of thieves,
They are barbarous instruments. Best not to
particularise how the deed was done. The under-
Prefect, a friend of the foreigners, was killed too.
The wife and children are believed by some to have
been beheaded, the baby in its mother's arms.
That we know. 'You won't hurt my baby,' Mrs.
Thompson pleaded. The reply was a blow. Then
the corpses were dragged along the street, and
thrown into the compound of the Roman Catholic
priest, while, excited by murder, the crowd rushed

THE POWER OF DARKNESS

on to kill any one whom it struck their fancy to kill.
^AU those killed were eventually thrown into the
same compound. As the day wore on people
began to wonder where were the other Europeans.
Can we fancy how the two ladies had passed the
long, hot hours praying and trembling, or in exalta-
tion lifted by faith above the sufferings of this
■ present time? Now an order was put forth: any
rone harbouring a European was to be put to death
exactly the same as a European. And the people
with whom they had taken refuge told them they
j could protect them no longer. Yet they were
I allowed to remain in safety till nightfall. Then in
I the darkness they stole out into the street, one
walking in front of the other, going along very
stilly, both keeping close to the wall. Where did
they mean to go .'' What hope had they .'' Nothing
of this shall we ever know ; but we can see the two
trembling figures with their fluttering clothes trying
to pass unnoticed, almost effaced against the dark
wall background. The people in the street began
to wonder — ' Who are these going there i* — without
a lantern? Who can it be ?— Ai — e! the Euro-
peans ! " And at once a crowd collected, and every
one set upon them.

"Two more corpses added to the pile! Next
i morning two boats became visible approaching the
I'city. Every one was crying out, the city was in a
I frantic state of excitement. A lady put her head a
I little out of the window of the first boat to see what

CHINA FROM WITHIN

had hidden with him in a fold among the mountains.
But there was no shade and no water, and though
he went down at night and fetched food, after five
days he took the children back to his house, and
with the help of the Chinese Christians barricaded
it, and they set to work to defend themselves,
stoutly refusing to take refuge in the Taotai's
Yamen, as they were invited to do, being warned
by the fate of the poor Protestants. After a fort-
night, 2,500 soldiers arrived, then the Taotai felt
courage to cope with the disorder, and he sent word
to the priest to be ready next day, and he would
send him an armed guard and gunboat to convey
him to the capital of the province.

" The priest objected at first, but the Taotai in
sisted it was the only way. So he did the best he
could for the children, dispersing them among the
various families of his acquaintance. And next day
came men with trumpets, going in front, and soldiers
and an official with two sedan chairs. For they had
to be carried about six miles to reach the gunboats.
The priest disguised himself so as to look as unlike
a priest and an European as he could, with huge
straw hat, and short country trousers, but the man-
darin only said — ' Are you not frightened ? I am
very frightened. Sit well back in your chain'
The Basque priest says he took good care to do
that, and also held a fan before his face ; yet before
he got into his gunboat, with soldiers in boats before
and behind, he more than once heard people say,

THE POWER OF DARKNESS

pings. And, again
' in the wall to try to

some
cover

one crept through a hole
the poor stripped bodies

of the foreigners. One of the thick Chinese mos-
quito curtains wrapped round them was at least a
winding-sheet.

" Meanwhile, how did the Lazarist father escape
who teils the tale? And here is shown what good
people these were, that when I went to see the
sister of St. Vincent and ask how their Order had
fared, it was over the cruel death of these nine
Protestants the Sister Superior broke down and
wept. "They were such good people," she said.
' There may be a difference — but these people
were real saints.' Then she wrung her hands.
And when I went to ask the Lazarist fathers, they
too told me of this massacre, weeping, and relating
all that Mr. Thompson had done for them. It
seems he had but lately saved the life of a priest
who was sick, doctored him, nursed him, sent him
nourishing food from his own house, invited him to
stay there, and in every way, as the still sick man
said with tears, been like a father to him. He
himself had come away on account of his health,
and a strong Basque priest had taken his place.
The Basque then told me how he had happily been
at an outlying country station when he heard of the
attack upon their saintly Protestants. He had fled
into the mountains. He could not flee away alto-
gether, for he had a school of a hundred and twenty
little girls. And, as I understood, all the little girls

CHINA FROM WITHIN

And how do the armies of Europe propose to teach

"Not by withdrawing from Pekiii before the walls
are razed to the ground, surely. Let the Imperial
palace continue to stand for a sight for future
generations, for a monument to our unburied dead.
But let Pekin be made a scorn among the cities
of China, a thing for the finger of derision to be
pointed at — a city without walls ! There is nothing
Chinese treat with more contempt than a wall-less
city. Dynamite can do so much ! The best thing
would be to make the people of Pekin themselves
destroy their walls, paid to do so by their own
Mandarins — but superintended by foreign soldiery.

"Owing to one foreigner's escape we hear the
details of the K'uchow massacre. But all probably
have suffered in much the same fashion."

Chapter VIII
THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES

WHAT with a murderous decree coming from
the Central Authority in Peking, and a
man like Yu-hsien Governor of Shan-si, it is not
surprising that the storm of persecution burst with
uncontrolled fury over that fated province.

Rivers run into the ocean, for the most part, un-
noticed ; but, to the ocean of this world's misery,
there are, at times, noticeable contributions which,
like the waters of the Yang-tse and Yellow Rivers,
colour the ocean far out to sea. The mind is
almost paralysed in trying to estimate the aggre-
gate suffering and wretchedness which have been
the outcome of the " Boxer" movement. The
anguish of fear and suspense, the pain of torture
and cruel wounds, the life-long burden of mutila-
tion, the desolation of bereavement, the horrors of
enforced penury and consequent starvation, endured
by hundreds of thousands of our fellow-beings, are
terrible subjects for reflection.

The sufferings of the some 40,000 Christians who
are computed to have been massacred will never be

CHINA FROM WITHIN

known. Nor will the sufferings be known of untold
numbers who were not Christians, both of those
whose "guilt" consisted in having had dealings
with foreigners (!). and also those who had had
no connection with them. Concerning these last,
their only " fault " lay in having the misfortune to
live in districts where cruel anarchy, under the
control of ruffians, was supreme.

We must confine ourselves mainly to the story of
Shan-si massacres, though the massacres in Chih-li
must be touched on, as also the hair-breadth escapes
from Shan-tung and Honan. Whenever we can we
shall leave the sufferers to tell their own story, and
in the case of those who are no more we will give
the most reliable information we are in position to
give.

In the nature of the case the victims were, nearly
without exception, missionaries, that is, apart from
those who suffered in Peking and Tientsin.

The missionaries in the three provinces of Shan-
tung, Chih-li and Honan have, speaking generally,
all escaped with their lives. The marvellous nature
of the escapes may be illustrated by a few instances
of some of the perils they went through.

The missionaries of She-k'itien, Mr. and Mrs.
Conway, Dr. Gershom Guinness, and Miss Watson,
were for fifteen days in hiding, expecting every
moment would be their last. The party left one
night, when it was raining heavily, and were es-
corted — paying three men ^35 for the escort — to

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES

a small boat under cover of darkness, and in this
way had to travel for days hidden under matting.
When in hiding, a one-month-old baby had to be
kept absolutely quiet by her mother, then physically
weak ; at any rate, quietness was necessary in those
seasons, when their lives were being hunted by men
standing on the roof of the loft where they were
hiding !

More wonderful still was the rescue, after three
months' peril, of the following party. Subjoined is
something of what they endured. It is taken from
the Standard of October 29, 1900.

" Messrs. Green and Gregg, missionaries, and Mr.
■reen's family, who were rescued by the French at
Pao-ting-fu, say that they left their post on the
border of Shan-si when they heard the Boxers were
approaching. The people threatened their lives,
and they went to live in a temple. There they
were for some time unmolested, but they again fled
■to escape the Boxers, and took refuge in a moun-

in cave. Their next refuge was a farmhouse.
Here they lay concealed for some time, but were
eventually discovered by a body of Boxers, who
shot Mr. Green in the head, and threatened to burn
ithe house. The party accordingly surrendered, and
'ere taken to Cheng-tlng-fu.

" Here the Mandarin directed that the missionary

.rty should be sent to Tientsin. They were

xordingly put on board a river boat with a

guard, and travelled through that day. When

CHINA FROM WITHIN

the boat was stopped, the guards put the party
ashore, and left them.

" A fresh start was made for Tientsin, but again
the Boxers captured the refugees, and took them to
their camp. Thence they were taken to Sinan,
being dragged by their hair part of the way, and
for three miles carried suspended from poles by
their arms and legs.

" At Sinan they were taken to the Yamen of the
chief official, where Miss Gregg's head was laid on
a stone block, and an official with an axe pretended
to be about to behead her, when an order came
from the Fanti of Pao-ting-fu to send the party
there. They arrived at Pao-ting-fu on July 13,
and have lived there with the Treasurer since."

The Rev. J. Goforth, of the Canadian Presby-
terian Mission, and his co-workers, went through
such adventures as the following. It is his own
account, taken from the North China Herald of
August I, 1900.

They got as far as the Yellow River in peace,
where they met Mr. Jameson, of the Peking Syn-
dicate. For a time they had the help of his escort,
but after got separated. Here is his account of a
start made from a hostile market town : —

" About two hours after arrival on the evening of
the 7th, our innkeeper brought in a report that
there were seventy armed men coming to take the
inn and all we had. We barricaded the inn gates
with carts and all sorts of things, and collected

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES

stones, etc., for our defence inside the yard. All
passed quietly that night.

" In the morning our carters refused to go on until
we guaranteed to pay them for all their losses.
This delayed our start until 8.30 a,m. Then the
mayor of the town ordered us to go, saying he
would send an armed escort down and see us thirty
I li from the place. He knew he was sending us into
■ a trap and showed his duplicity very clearly.
When we started the streets were crowded with
people and the walls were swarming with them.
Outside the south gate there were at least 10,000
spectators. Presently we saw two bands of several
hundreds, armed with swords, spears, and guns, one
lot standing in a body waiting for us to come to
them, and the other was along the wall ready for a
rear attack. There was nothing for it but to go on,
our little band numbering eleven adults (five men),
and five children. We had only three revolvers
amongst us. The whole crowd came on us with a
rush. They began pelting stones at our covered
. carts, but fortunately we had them lined and
I covered with rugs on account of the heat, and none
of the missiles came through. Failing in this, they
cut our animals across the back with swords, and
when they were all tangled up we had to defend
urselves. I got nine wounds on my arms and
lands, the only serious one being on the head at
he back of the skull. That knocked me over for a
l^while ; I also got eight blows with clubs, one partly

8o CHINA FROM WITHIN

Shan-si, had a terrible experience. They were
literally "in deaths oft." Robbed of everything,
with hardly decent clothing left to them, the people,
at one time, sharpening the instruments before their
eyes, with which they assured them they were
going to despatch them, yet, notwithstanding, they
were preserved. This was their experience in
Shan-si. The next province, Honan, also had a
pro- Boxer Governor.

"On arriving in Honan the common jail afforded
a nightly lodging. The Chengchou magistrate
drew his hand across the missionary's throat and
cursed his stars that they had arrived too late to be
killed ; fresh orders had come to pass them on
through the province as prisoners. At Sinyang-
chou the official, Jao, supplied silver, clothes, food,
and even luxuries, and in five days' time the Cooper
party arrived and all went on into friendly Hupeh."

Mr. and Mrs. Glover's little boy and girl came
out of the awful ordeal alive. At Hankow Mrs.
Glover was delivered prematurely of a little one,
who only survived ten days, to be followed not
long after by the mother, worn out by sufferings
that had been endured with Christian fortitude and
unmurmuring patience.

The story of the sufferings of the Saunders-
Cooper party is well known, having been published in
The Timesoi September 29, 1900. In the forty-nine
days of that awful journey, they had so much suffer-
ing crowded into their lives, that it is a wonder any

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES 8i

I survived. Indeed, not a few succumbed. Treachery,
'starvation, thirst, nakedness, bufferings, cursings,
stonings, beatings, crushing under a cart, plastering
with mud, and even outrage— make a list, not be-
hind the list of the sufferings of St Paul. But the
testimony of the brethren is, that there was not
one word of murmur ; on the contrary, these things
were endured in the spirit of unfailing love and
pity for their persecutors, and even joy that they
were "counted worthy to suffer shame for His
name." Miss Rice died in Shan-si ; two of Mr.
Saunders' children " from fatigue and want, and
were buried in Honan " ; while Mrs. Cooper and
Miss Huston passed away in Hupeh ; and just
after reaching Hankow Mr. Cooper's little baby
breathed its last, leaving his father stricken of wife
and child.

The shocking story of the massacres of the Pao-
ting fu missionaries, of whom the personal friend-
ship of each one, with the exception of two recent
arrivals, is a hallowed memory, must be told in
these few awful sentences.

"Mr. Taylor, Mr. and Mrs. Sincox. and their
three children, Americans, were surprised by Boxers
in their house. The building was set on fire and
they were burned to death. Miss Morrow was
stripped, dragged naked through the street, with her
two breasts cut off, and then decapitated. Dr. and
Mrs. Hodge and a woman guest were burned in
their house. Miss Gould died from fright on being

82 CHINA FROM WITHIN

dragged from her house. Mr. Pilkin was preach-
ing when he was attacked, and shot while running
to his house to get a gun. Mr. and Mrs. Bagnall
and child fled to some Imperial troops for protec-
tion, but were turned over to the Boxers, who be-
headed the child and speared the others to death."

Genius, beauty, learning, devotion, and heart
qualities of the best were represented in that group
of martyrs.

And now we must retrace our steps to Shan-si.
Horrors thicken in doing so. Still the facts should
be known ; the following accounts, culled from the
Peking and Tientsin Times, and the North China
Herald oi September 26, 1900, may be looked upon
as substantially true.

" The recent indictment of the Governor of Shan-
si for his constant abetting of the Boxer movements
in Shan-tung while ruling that province, has now to
be supplemented by an account of his fiendish atroci-
ties in his new satrapy. No less a person than the
grandson of Wang W^n-shao, a member of the
Tsungli Yamen and the successor of Li H ung Chang
in the Viceroyalty of Chih-Ii, appeared at the British
Legation a few days after the relief of Peking and
formally accused Yu-hsien of having invited all the
foreign missionaries at Taiyuanfu into his Yamen on
pretence of sending them to the coast under official
guard. Having thus secured them, he put them all
to death, and then memorialised the Imperial Court
in Peking for a reward for distinguished service.

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES

Astounding and incredible as this statement ap-
peared at the time, it has since then been fully con-
firmed.

" A native Christian teacher, a graduate of the
North China College at Tungchou, who has been
employed as a teacher in the Boys' School at Fen-
choufu, Shan-si, arrived in Tientsin on Saturday
evening the ist of September, 1900, having escaped
from the general massacre. He left Shan-si on the
23rd of August, and after many vicissitudes arrived
here safely. He is a very intelligent and energetic
young fellow of twenty-two, who within the past
[, two years, under the instruction of a missionary
lady, has learned to speak English with great
fluency and precision, and is well qualified to give
an accurate and detailed report in that language.
His story is as follows : —

" As far as is known at present it was on the 23rd
of June that the first murders were committed.
This was at Hsiao-yi-hsien near P'ing-yao, of Miss
Whitechurch and Miss Sewell. Their death was
reported long since by telegraph. On the day
mentioned three hundred Boxers broke into the
Mission compound subsequent to the following in-
cident. A few rough youths had attacked the front
gate : the ladies sent to the district magistrate com-
plaining, and asking for protection. The official
:ame himself, and finding only the gate injured, re-
proved the informant and struck him with his hand.
This gave notice to the crowds that they could

CHINA FROM WITHIN

attack with impunity ; the ladles at once began
another appeal to the official, who repUed that his
underlings were intended to protect Chinese and
not foreigners : thereupon a larger crowd entered
the compound and attacked the two ladies. In
their helplessness, they kneeled before the crowd
and be^ed for mercy : their only answer was to
be beaten on the head at intervals with clubs. Some
of the crowd took glass botdes and with them beat
the heads of their victims, breaking the botdes in
doing so. The ladies lived one hour after the first
attack. Their clothes were stripped off and their
watches carried away. The official, on being in-
formed of their death, sent over two boxes for
coffins ; these were placed in the newly-built bap-
tistry' in the court)-ard. These details were learned
from a messenger sent from the neighbourii^ Amer-
ican Board Mission at Fen-chou-fu.

" The next disaster in the order of time was upon
the 29th of June at Shou-yang-hsien, seventy mUes
east of T'ai-yuan-fii. This is the Mission Station of
' Independent Workers,' under Mr. T. \V. Pigott,
a graduate of Trinity College, Dublin. There were
here at the time Mr. and Mrs. Pigott, their son,
Mr. Robinson (a tutor of this lad. recendy arrived),
5Iiss Duval (also a teacher), and two daughters of the
Rev. E. R. Atwater, of Fen-chou-fa These seven
persons were driven from their homes to the moun-
tains not far away. They soon returned to their
houses, however, and were then arrested by the Dis-

I
I

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES

trict Magistrate, and compelled to go to the capital
T'ai-yuan-fu. En route they were chained with
handcuffs and iron collars, and were not permitted
to buy food. The distance is about seventy English
miles. The soldiers would not sell them eggs, even
at a dollar a piece. On the loth of the Sixth Moon
{6th July) they were taken ; and, on arrival at the
provincial capital, they were placed in separate
rooms, Mrs, Pigott not being allowed to communi-
cate with her husband. This news was brought to
Taku by a photographer who fled, and was for-
warded to Fen-chou-fu by letter. On the 3rd of the
Sixth Moon (June 29), most of the foreign houses
at T'ai-yuan-fu had been burned, as already reported
by Mr. Saunders' party. The missionaries escaped
to the house of Mr. Farthing, of the English Baptist
Mission, with the exception of Miss Coombs, who
was unable to do so owing to the hindrance of her
native school girls. Hundreds of Boxers and rough
people had crowded into the houses, but several of
the missionaries managed to fight their way through
and escape, the one lady being left behind unnoticed.
During the rioting many fell and were trampled
upon, two girls thus meeting their death.

" Miss Coombs pleaded with the soldiers, who were
sharing in the loot and helping in the burning, to
save her life : their reply was to seize her and throw
her into the flames of the burning houses ; later on,
nothing but a pile of ashes was found in the place
where she fell. The refugees must have remained

86
several t

CHINA FROM WITHIN

, Farthing. On the

the house o

7th of July, the Governor sent for a complete list of
the names of the foreigners. On the 9th of July, a
Monday, all Protestant missionaries were ordered to
go to the Cjovernor's Yamen, and hopes were held
out that they would all be sent to Tientsin under
escort. Including the Shou-yang party from Mr.
Farihing's house already mentioned, their total
number was thirty-three. When they were all in
the Yam<^n the doors were closed, and the wretched
inmates must have realized in sickening despair that
they had been trapped. They were not kept in
suspense long. The Boxers were ordered to enter
and slaughter them, the Governor's troops mounting
i while the ghastly deed was being done. No
s are positively known about the massacre
wyond the fact that the heads of all the victims were
displrtjrd outside the Yamen later in the day ; but it
i« brlieveii the work was done with swords, and it
i« |>i\>lKihle thai death released each promptly. On
liw same day forty native Christians were killed, and
following day ten Catholic priests, it is pre-
P1.I in the same place and manner."
Rumours twxx (or some time been circulating,
MiA ttvUhmce is now accumulative, that Yu Hsien
MM ihe CKMni^le of the massacre in T'ai-yuan by
t>H\r\)pnni£ •ome of die mis^onaries with his own

An r>-«<witiKS«— «MI a convert — in T'a

-yuan-

»U viTtitt^f;; to « pclative in Shanghai," makes the

THE SHAN-Sl MASSACRES

following statements (iV. C. H., October 17th,
1900):

" Yii Hsien was so anxious to be the first to
wreaiv vengeance on his victims that he sent special
orders after his Boxers to bring all their captives to
T'ai-yuan-fu ' for trial ' first, and not to harm them
on the way. When the first batch of missionaries
was brought to T'ai-yuan-fu, therefore, Yii Hsien
ordered them to be brought straight into his Yam6n
and taken to an archery ground in the rear, and
then placed standing at a distance of a few feet
from each other. The sanguinary Governor then
took off his outer official robe and necklace,
mounted a horse ready saddled for him, and then
taking a long sword from an orderly, cantered to
the other end of the ground. As Yii Hsien turned
his horse towards his victims, standing some 1 5
chang (about 200 feet) away, he started at a hard
gallop towards them, swinging his long sword as he
swept past them, carrying off four or five heads on
the onrush. Then his horse baulked and would
not go further, so Yii Hsien had to get off his
horse, and the rest of these unhappy missionaries
were then massacred by the Boxers and soldiers
who were present. This was Yii Hsien's way of
'setting an example' to his myrmidons."

" The previous narrative then takes us to T'ai-ku
on the 31st July {6th of Seventh Moon) when 300 or
400 Boxers wearing red turbans attacked the Mission
'there, first killing the preacher, Mr. Liu Fung-chi,

CHINA FROM WITHIN

and Mr. Liu, his assistant. Messrs. Clapp, Williams
and Davis, wiio had firearms, fired on the Boxers
from the roofs of their houses, and for a time kept
them at bay, the ladies of the Mission, Mrs. Clapp,
Miss Bird and Miss Partridge, meanwhile taliing
refuge in one of the out-houses of the Mission com-
pound. It is believed the missionaries killed two
soldiers during the fight, but they were soon over-
powered and all killed. The heads of the whole
party, and it is believed the hearts of the three men,
were taken to T'ai-yuan-fu. It is reported, but infor-
mant was not certain on the point, that one hundred
native Christians, including sixty Catholics, were also
massacred at this place.

"His last story of massacre brings us to August
15th and Yenchoufu where informant was stationed.
There were at this station, when the trouble began,
Mr. and Mrs. Price and litde girl, Mr. and Mrs.
Atwater and two girls, belonging to the American
Board; Mr. and Mrs, Landgren and Miss Eldred,
of the C.I.M. On the 15th August the party were
ordered by the Prefect to leave the place, he pro-
mising to give them a guard of twenty soldiers as
an escort to Tientsin. The District Magistrate had
been friendly disposed towards them and had some
days before appealed to the Prefect not to drive
these people out, as they had never done anything
but good in the place. The Prefect, who had re-
cently been appointed by Yti on purpose to carry
out his malevolent designs, replied that he had been

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES 89

ordered to drive them out, and if the Magistrate did
not do his duty he would himself drive the mission-
aries out with a whip. There was therefore no help
for it but to go, and although the Magistrate again
pleaded for a few days' delay, as Mrs. Atwater was
about to be confined, he was overruled, and early
on the 15th they started under an escort of twenty
soldiers. Informant was of the party. When they
had gone about twenty li he discovered that another
band of soldiers were lying in wait ten li further on,
and that the party were to be killed, and knowing
he could not save them he managed to get away.
He subsequently learnt that on meeting the other
band of soldiers, the escort gave a signal and the
little band of missionaries were hacked to pieces.
He believes their death was cruel and lingering.
About two weeks previously the officials had caught
the medical student Li and given him 300 blows to
force him to hand over two guns and two revolvers
which the missionaries had, so the party were quite
unarmed. This man was also given another 300
blows before he would give up the names of the
native Christians in the district."

The bearer of these terrible tidings had with him
a piece of blue cloth, on which is the name of Mr.
C. W. Price with these words, " This man's story is
reliable. "

The above relates to massacres in Central and
Southern Shan-sl. It had been long feared that
those in the North had shared the same fate.

CHINA FROM WITHIN

into the future. It is quite an exploded theory to
fancy modern diplomats are concerned with safe-
guarding the future, and those who hug this vain
imagination are old-fashioned and behind the times :
or, are they even yet before their time, and may it
possibly be, that in the near future ministers who
cannot or will not think for themselves, may be com-
pelled to heed the thinking done for them outside
the narrow sphere so neatly bounded by red-tape ?
May it not be possible that the friends and relatives
of some of those who have been carved up by Yii's
orders — and even missionaries have wealthy and
influential friends, as instance the old Irish family of
Pigott ; the family of Mrs. Pigott, as soon as they
heard of the danger of their dear ones, wired offer-
ing ^5,000 for their ransom — may demand to know
why, when the British Government had it in their
power to remove and even decapitate the Governor
of Shan-tung, they stood by and allowed him to enter
a still larger field for mischief? "

It is impossible not to contrast the beginning ot
the work in this province with its end, which, after
all, will only be temporary. Seldom has a beginning
so auspicious had an end so tragic I The work
of Protestant missions began in the year 1S78.
Shan-si was visited with a famine the like of
which for mortality has never been equalled in any
land. We have had villages pointed out to us where
out of 1,000 families only 100 were left ; in many
cases whole villages were blotted out. It was

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES 93

ported that nine and a half to thirteen millions
perished out of a population of about 20,000,000 !

Foreigners, chiefly British and American, con-
tributed about ;^ 1 00, 000 to the famine fund ; '"sixty-
nine foreigners were engaged in the work of distri-
bution, of whom four died in consequence of exposure
and overwork. One of these, Mr. Whiting, was
honoured by the Governor of Shan-si, with a public
funeral in T'ai-yuan-fu, the provincial capital. The
Chinese Plenipotentiary in London, Kuoh Sung-tao,
gave utterance to the sincere sentiments of his
Government in saying :

The noble philanthropy which heard, In a far
distant country, the cry of suffering and hastened to
its assistance, is too signal a recognition of the com-
mon brotherhood of humanity ever to be forgotten,
and is all the more worthy to be remembered be-
cause it was not a passing response to a generous
emotion, but a continued effort, persevered in until,
in sending the welcome rain. Heaven gave the as-
suring promise of returning plenty, and the sign
that the brotherly succour was no longer required.
Coming from Englishmen residing in all parts of the
world, this spontaneous act of generosity made a
deep impression on the Government and people of
China, which cannot but have the effect of more
closely cementing the friendly relations which now
so happily exist between China and Great Britain.
But the hands that gave, also assumed the arduous
' Williams' Middle Kingdom, p, 737.

94 CHINA FROM WITHIN

duty of administering the relief; and here 1 would
not forget to offer my grateful thanks and condolence
to the families of those, and they are not a few, who
nobly fell in distributing the fund."

And yet, to think that twenty-two years after
this, over a hundred brave men and women should
"nobly fall in distributing," not a fund to combat
bodily hunger, but in distributing a pure Gospel to
meet the spiritual famine, sound science to meet the
mental famine, and the fruits of medical and sur-
gical skill to alleviate the sufferings of that very
same people! And how should they "fall"?
What should be their posthumous honours ?
Heads in cages, hearts cut out and sent to a
bloodthirsty Governor, bodies beaten, mutilated,
violated, hacked and burned — this is the return
for twenty-two years' patient and persistent love !

In that note of thanks the Chinese Ambassador
spoke of the help given, " not " as being " a passing
response to a generous emotion, but a continued
effort." And do these proud Manchus think that,
by instituting a reign of terror, missionaries and
others will never set their feet again in Shan-si?
When, in the dark days of December, the de-
feats and reverses at Stormberg, Magersfontein
and Colenso spread their pall of gloom over
Great Britain, did Great Britain retreat ? The
only answer of the nation was greater effort, and
greater sacrifice on the part of the soldiers of the
Queen. And shall God's soldiers face the disasters

THE SHAN-SI MASSACRES 95

of Shan-si In a different spirit ? No ! So sure as
" God is love," and '' love never faileth," the people
of Shan-si, and the officials too, will yet have to
learn that the desire for their salvation is not a
'* passing emotion," and that the *' continued effort *'
of Christian charity will in due time live down and
overcome their baseless suspicion, inhuman cruelty
and unreasonable hatred.

Chapter IX
THE SIEGE OF PEKING

IN this chapter we shall avail ourselves almost
entirely of Dr. Morrison's account. This first
extract, however, is from the North China Herald}

" On the morning of June 20th, when the Le-
gations all moved into the British grounds, there
were few who thought that the siege would last
over a week or ten days. Consequently, many
came bringing only a food supply for a few days,
while some completely forgot to bring any.
Wiser heads, however, worked all that afternoon
with mules and carts, emptying the foreign stores of
all their provisions, and carrying into the besieged
quarters thousands of pounds of rice from near- '
by grain shops.

"In the Chinese mill near the Canal were found ■
over five tons of Honan wheat. This mill, contain-
ing four grinding stones, was moved into the Lega-
tion, and every day an allowance of wheat was
ground into coarse flour. By six o'clock in the
evening, when the Chinese attack began with
vigour, there had been carried into the Legation,
^ North China Herald, August 3, 1900.

n
^

THE SIEGE OF PEKING 97

or within the lines of defence, enough food to last
ten weeks. The grounds were well supplied with
water, which for the most part was used unboiled,
and up to the closing of the siege no case of fever
had resulted from so drinking it. By this time
Foreign Ministers and every one knew that our
position was one of great danger. It was decided
at once to begin a plan of fortifications, and the
Rev. F. D. Gamewell, of the American Episcopal
Mission, was placed in charge of the work. Night
and day, for almost two months, he carried them
on. In fact, when the Indian troops came into the
south gate of the compound, Mr. Gamewell was in
the north end with his fortifying crew.

"The morning of the 21st found an organiza-
tion ready to begin work. Mr. Tewkesbury, of
the American Board Mission, was made Chairman
of the Committee for Public Comfort. This com-
mittee looked after the general well-being of those
in the compound.

"Prof Oliver, Mr. King and Prof Russell were
in charge of the food supply and giving out of
stores. C. H. Fenn was made the miller. Mr.
Hobart, of Tientsin, was in charge of the Chinese
labour. Among the 3,000 native converts were
hundreds of preachers, teachers, medical helpers
and assistants ; these men worked like common
coolies. Mr. Hobart had them numbered and
worked in companies of ten to thirty. Mr. Stelle
and Mr. Gait were in charge of the labour regislra-

98 CHINA FROM WITHIN

tion and time-keeping. Dr. W. S. Ament was the
overseer of confiscated goods. Mr. Verity, Dr. In-
gram and Mr. Ewing were in charge of the native
Christian quarters.

" The British Legation students and the young
men in the Imperial Chinese Customs, Banks, etc.,
formed a Volunteer Guard to assist in the protec-
tion of the Legation. These men did most excel-
lent service, and were brave to a man,

" Drs. Dudgeon and John Inglis formed a Sani-
tary Committee to look after the general health of
the compound. The siege was fortunate in having
a number of trained nurses, who, with the many
female physicians, gave the sick excellent care ;
the latter also acting as nurses,

" Mr. Tours, of the British Legation, was the
head of the Fire Department. During the first
week of the siege, fires formed the greatest ele-
ment of danger. The ladies formed a Committee
on Sand Bags, They are said to have made
50,000 the first six weeks. Almost every con-
ceivable thing that would make a sand bag was
turned into one. Tablecloths and bed linen, por-
tieres and silk curtains, carpets and window cur-
tains, foreign and Chinese clothes, silk from
Chinese shops inside the lines, were all used to
make the much-needed sand bag."

The following are extracts from Dr. Morrison's
account : —

" On June 22nd, by a blunder of Captain

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

Thomann, the Austrian commander, a panic, that
might have proved disastrous, occurred. He had
without reason ordered the abandonment of most
of the Legations. On this, at the request of all
the Ministers, Sir Claude MacDonald assumed chief
command. The positions were re-occupied, except
one barricade.

" It was obvious from the first, that the great
danger at the British Legation would be from in-
cendiarism. A fire was started behind Mr. Cock-
burn's house, and only by desperate work were
the flames got under. It was then proposed to
pull down an unimportant building of the Hanlin
Academy. The proposition was vetoed. Such
desecration, it was said, would wound the suscepti-
bilities of the Chinese Government. It was 'the
most sacred building in China.' So little do the
oldest of us understand the Chinese !

" A strong wind was blowing from the Hanlin
into the Legation, the distance separating the
nearest building from the Minister's residence being
only a few feet. Fire the one, and the Minister's
residence would have been in danger. Suddenly
there was the alarm of fire. Smoke was rising
from the Hanlin. The most venerated pile in
Peking, the great Imperial Academy, centre of all
Chinese learning, with its priceless collection of
books and manuscripts, was in flames. Every one
who was off duty rushed to the back of the
Legation. The Hanlin had been occupied during

loo CHINA FROM WITHIN

the night by Imperial soldiers, who did not hesitate,
in their rage to destroy the foreigners, to set fire
to the buildings. Ii was first necessarj- to clear
the temple. A breach was made in the wall,
Captain Poole headed a force of marines and
volunteers, who rushed in, divided, searched the
courts, and returned to the main pavilion, with its
superb pillars and memorial tablets. Chinese were
rushing from other burning pavilions to the main
entrance. They were taken by surprise and many
were killed, but they had done their evil deed.
Other great libraries have been destroyed by the
victorious invader. What can be thought of a
nation which destroys its own most sacred edifice,
the pride and glory of its learned men through
centuries, in order to wreak vengeance upon the
foreigner ?

"Then were fired the Dutch Legation, the Russo-
Chinese Bank, and all the Customs buildings. Flames
were on every side, the smoke was tremendous,
while the fusillade was incessant

" Then Krupp guns opened fire, and they b^an
to make bomb-proof shelters for the women and
children. On the 25th the Chinese tried to throw
the Legation people off their guard by treacherously
putting up a board, on which were the words :
' Imperial command to protect Ministers, and stop
firing. A despatch will be handed in at the Im-
perial Canal Bridge.' A hundred rifles were
levelled at the one who went for it, the despatch

I
I

THE SIEGE OF PEKING loi

■was never received, and vigilance was redoubled.
On July ist M. Wagner was killed by the burst-
ing of a shell, the first civilian to lay down his
life for the besieged women and children. It was
a day of misfortune. In the afternoon a most
disastrous sortie was made to take a Krupp gun.
The party consisted of sixteen Italians, four Aus-
trians, two French, seven British marines, and five
British students, who behaved with great pluck
and dash. They were caught in a trap, and it
was considered fortunate not more were involved.
Three men and an officer were killed, and five
wounded.

" The gun that was not captured was brought up
again next day into play, and continued battering
down the Fu walls (the ' Fu ' was Prince Su's
palace, where were the refugee Christians). The
enemy were working their way ever nearer to them.
Their rage to reach the Christians was appalling.
:They cursed them from over the wall, hurled stones
It them, and threw shells to explode overhead.
Only after the armistice, when we received the
Peking Gazette, did we find that word to burn out
and slaughter the converts had come from the
highest in the land.

" The Japanese were driven still further back.
Already they had lost heavily, for upon them had
fallen the brunt of a defence, the gallantry of which
surpassed all praise. When the siege was raised,
it was found that of the entire force of marines

I04 CHINA FROM WITHIN

posed to a heavy fire, retired within what had been
the Chinese barricade, and employed it against the
enemy who had built it. Captain Myers was
wounded in the knee by tripping over a fallen spear.

"News of the successful sortie gave much pleasure
to the community. Chinese coolies were sent on
the wall, and a strongly intrenched redoubt was
built there ; the camp was made safe by traverses.
Unfortunately, the wound of Captain Myers proved
more serious than was at first suspected, and he
was not again able to return to duly. The services
of a brave and capable officer were lost to the
garrison ; his post on the wall was taken most
ably by Captain Percy Smith, and other officers
in turn.

" Most of the shelling was now directed against
the French and German Legations and Chamot's
Hotel. The hotel was struck ninety-one times,
and was several times set on fire, but the flame
was extinguished. Work continued there, however
hot the shelling, for food had to be prepared there
for half the community in Peking, Russians, French,
Germans, and Austrians. The energy of Chamot
was marvellous. He fed the troops and a crowd
of Christian refugees, killed his own mules and
horses, ground his own wheat, and baked 300
loaves a day. Shelled out of the kitchen, he baked
in the parlour. His courage inspired the Chinese,
and they followed him under fire with an amazing
confidence.

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

I OS

W
W

" Then suddenly a new attempt was made to
reduce the British Legation. Guns firing round
shot, eight-pounders and four- pounders, were
mounted on the Imperial City wall overlooking
from the north the Hanlin and the British Lega-
tion. With glasses — the distance was only 350
yards — one could clearly see the officers and dis-
tinguish their Imperial peacock feathers and Man-
darin hats. Adjoining the battery an upper row
of stones on the wall was raised to form loopholes
for sharpshooters, who could thus enfilade the canal
and our communications eastward. Round shot
were hurled into the Hanlin and crashed through
the roofs of the British Legation. One pierced
both walls of the dining-room, passing behind the
portrait of the Queen. Two came crashing through
the wall of a student's room, where a few minutes
before Sir Claude MacDonald had been standing,
watching the preparations being made to bombard
us. Another struck the room occupied by a lady
who was in bed and fell at her side. Another
ploughed through the carts. Three batteries in all,
carrying five guns, were mounted on the Imperial
City wall where the bombardment could be wit-
nessed by the Empress- Dowager and her coun-
sellors, and day after day round shot were thrown
from them into the British Legation, into a com-
pound crowded with women and children. This is
what His Excellency Lo F^ng-Luh was describing
to Lord Salisbury as 'giving effective protection to
;he British Legation.'

io8

CHINA FROM WITHIN

mounted fifty yards away, had the range and raked
the post with shell and shrapnel."

Meanwhile, the French and German Legations
were being roughly handled, and men were falling
daily. Chinese and French were so close that the
voices of the Chinese officers could be heard en-
couraging their men. Chinese were within the
Legation itself. Their guns bombarded the Mini-
ster's residence. On the afternoon of the 13th
there was a dull roar in the midst of the devilish
cries of hordes of Chinese, the ratde of musketry
and the boom of heavy guns. A mine had ex-
ploded, and burst an entrance into the French
Legation.

Driven from the main building, the small garrison
fell back to a line of defence and securely held it.
The buildings that were left were set fire to, and
when the flames had burnt out. Imperial banners
were hoisted over the ruins of what had once been
the residence of the French Minister. And while
this tragedy was being enacted in Peking the
Chinese Ambassador in Paris was assuring the
President that his Government was " protecting "
the French Legation ?

Fierce, too, were the attacks on the German
Legation. The strength of their garrison num-
bered only one officer and thirty-one men. They
broke into the club alongside the Legation, and were
on the tennis ground, when Count Soden and a
handful of German soldiers gallantly charged them

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

109

at the point of the bayonet, and drove them out
headlong. Reinforcements of Russians and Ger-
mans came up. Their services were not needed.
The attack was over. Uniforms on the dead
Chinese showed that the attack had been carried
out by the troops of Yung-Iu, reinforced by the
savages of Tungfuh-slang. Some of the dead
were armed with the latest pattern Mauser, and the
newest German army revolver.

" On July 14th, a messenger brought a letter from
Prince Ching 'and others.' It was the first com-
munication from outside for nearly a month. The
letter was read with derision. It was interpreted as
a guileless attempt to seduce the ministers away and
massacre them at ease. News, we heard, had just
reached the Chinese of the taking of the native city
of Tientsin. (The foreign concession of Tientsin
had been relieved June 24th.)

" They had invited the ministers to go ' without a
single armed soldier,' and 'temporarily reside in
the Chinese Foreign Office'! On the 15th a reply
was sent declining this request.
' " Firing continued furiously. On the morning of
the 1 6th, Captain Strouts, the senior British officer,
was shot, and died an hour afterwards. He was
always cool and self-reliant, and never spared him-
^self, while always considerate of his men. On the
p r6th a message came from the outside world — it was
in cipher, addressed to the American Minister, Mr.
Conger. From July 17th there was a cessation of

112 CHINA FROM WITHIN

to Marquis di Salvaggo Raggi their grief at receiving
news of the death of the King of Italy, and they in-
formed him that Lo Feng-Luh had been appointed
by special decree to express the condolences of the
Emperor and Dowager-Empress. On the death of
the Duke of Edinburgh, the Yamen made a similar
notification to the British Minister, and this gave
Sir Claude an opportunity, which he did not fail to
seize, of reminding the Yamen of the strange incon-
sistency of their action. The presence of Lo Feng-
Luh in London engaged in conveying condolences
to Her Majesty indicated a maintenance of friendly
relations, which was in no way compatible with the
existence of hostilities in Peking, and the continued
deprivation, extending over two months, of the Lega-
tions of food. Sir Claude might well have added
that he had no reason to think that His Excellency
the Chinese Minister in London was inditing his
despatches to the Foreign Office sandbagged in his
chancery in Portland Place, with 12-pounder shells
exploding on the bedroom floor, and with the guards
under a barricade opposite firing volleys into his
family's dwelling rooms."

On August lOth, Friday, a messenger succeeded
in passing the enemy's lines, and brought us letters
from General Gaselee and General Fukushima. A
strong relief force was marching to Peking, and
would arrive here, if nothing untoward happened,
on the 13th or 14th. Our danger then was that the
enemy would make a final effort to rush the Lega-

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

tions before the arrival of reinforcements. And the
expected happened. For the last two days we had
to sustain a furious fusillade and bombardment, and
our casualties were many. One shell burst in Sir
Claude MacDonald's bedroom. But our defences
were now admirable and our walls shell-proof. We
had seized the Mongol market, and killed the
general in command of the Shan-si troops who had
undertaken to reduce the Legations in five days.

On August 1 2th, the impersonal body "Prince
Ching and others," wrote requesting an audience
with the foreign Ministers to discuss the prelimin-
aries of a cessation of hostilities. Permission was
given and the interview fixed for 1 1 a.m. next day,
but the Ministers never cama At the last moment
they were " too occupied," or too frightened, to
come. Yesterday passed under a continuous fusil-
lade, which increased during the night. Then at
three on the morning of August 14th we were all
awakened by the booming of guns in the east and
by the welcome sound of volley firing. Word flew
round that " the foreign troops are at the city wall
and are shelling the East Gate." At daylight most
of us went on to the wall, and witnessed the shelling
of the Great East Gate. We knew that the allies
would advance in separate columns, and were on
the gut vive of excitement, knowing that at any
moment now the troops might arrive. Luncheon,
the hard luncheon of horseflesh, came on, and we
had just finished when the cry rang through the

114

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Legation, "The British are coming!" and there was
a rush to the entrance and up Canal Street towards
the Water Gate. The stalwart forms of the general
and his staff were entering by the Water Gate,
followed by the ist Regiment of Sikhs and the 7th
Rajputs. They passed down Canal Street, and
amid a scene of indescribable emotion marched to
the British Legation. The siege had been raised."

It is well to add the following remarks of Dr. W.
A. P. Martin, Principal of the Tung Wen College
in Peking. Dr. Martin is one of the most learned
men in China, and himself went through the siege.
His remarks about Dr. Morrison, the author of the
thrilling extracts which make up this chapter, are
appropriate at this point : —

• "The German Minister laid down his life for all
the others. Another who did likewise was Pro-
fessor James. He was shot while crossing a bridge
where he had negotiated a place of refuge for the
native Christians. He was seen to fall, but his
body was never recovered. He died an honourable
death. Another man who should be mentioned is
Dr. Morrison, as brave a man as can be found in
the whole world, and full of charity. He exerted
himself to save the native Christians. Formeriy
Dr. Morrison had made use of some remarks which
had offended many missionaries. He had made
ample atonement now by saving the lives of hun-
dreds of converts. At the instance of Mrs. Squiers
' North China Herald, August 3, 1900.

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

lis

(the wife of the American Secretary), this brave
man went to look for Christians in the ashes of the
old cathedral which had just been burnt down. He
brought back with him not fewer than four hundred,
the most melancholy persons the speaker had ever
seen. As they passed down Legation Street, weary,
sick, hungry, and in rags, he saw one man with his
old mother on his shoulders. He was seeking a
place of refuge for her. Another aged woman was
on foot She was the mother of a former Chinese
plenipotentiary, and now at the Paris Exposition, as
representative of the Chinese Government. A man
of that position could not leave his mother in his
own country, because she was a Christian! His
house had been burnt down, and his family de-
stroyed. An expansive charity went out towards
all the native Christians, and everything was done
to save their lives. 2,000 Catholic and Protestant
converts were collected in the mansion of a Mongol
prince, and 3,000 or 4,000 in the Catholic Cathe-
dral In this latter place, Bishop Favier, with the
help of forty marines, succeeded in keeping the
enemy at bay for two months. Brave and brilliant
as was the defence of the British Legation, the
most brilliant spot in all the siege was the Roman
Catholic Cathedral.

' Sometimes it was said that too much attention
was paid to the safety of the native Christians.
The testimony of those who knew was that, but for
those Christians, it would have been impossible to

ii6 CHINA FROM WITHIN

hold the British Legation. What did they do?
Those Christians supplied bone and muscle. They
were the labouring force, skilfully organized by
missionaries, and patiently performed the duties of
building barricades under a galling fire."

As the circumstances of this famous siege are
unparalleled, so are the remarkable chains of events
which led to the relief of the besieged.

This is well put by M. Pichon, the French Am-
bassador, in his account given to the French Pre-
sident : —

^ " It is a wonder the besieged were able to resist
and be saved. A series of extraordinary events,
the origin of which was less the will of men than
the occurrence of circumstances which could not
be foreseen, was the only thing which prevented
the general massacre to which they seemed con-
demned.

"If, on the 2oth June, all the members of the
Diplomatic Corps had gone to the Tsung-li-Yamgn,
as they had intended doing, none of them would
have escaped death, or at least the firing of the
Chinese soldiers. As chance would have it, only
the German Minister set out to attend the audience
which he had demanded. He was assassinated.
If, on June 22nd, the Legations of France, Germany,
America, and Russia had been evacuated, or if that
evacuation had taken place, as was seriously con-
templated a few days later, the British Legation

' Standard, November lo, 1900,

THE SIEGE OF PEKING

117

would have succumbed in less than a fortnight. If
at the very commencement of the siege we had not
discovered in abandoned houses sufficient rice and
corn to feed 900 refugees and 2,400 native Christians
for more than two months, we should have been

y reduced to surrender by famine.

'* Had our aggressors, instead of sending the
greater number of their artillerymen to Tientsin,
kept a few good gunners at Peking, we should have
been unable to protect ourselves against their fire.
Moreover, if the Chinese had possessed a little
courage, and had attempted to storm our walls and
barricades, we should have been crushed by their
numerical superiority. If from July 17th we had
not profited by a sort of intermittent armistice, the
causes of which it is difficult to understand, the
losses we should have suffered would have reduced
us to powerlessness. Our ammunition would also
have been exhausted before it would have been

' possible to liberate us. If the International Army
which arrived in the Capital on August 1 4th had
delayed its entry twenty-four hours, it is probable it
would have found no one living. The Chinese had
dug a mine fifty-four metres long under the British
Legation, and had it been exploded it would have

I killed some hundred persons, and would have
opened to the assailants the refuge of the women

t and children. They had accomplished a similar

[ work on the Wall, which would have blown up the
Russo-American barricade, and they were not far

I20 CHINA FROM WITHIN

forty years which have intervened the relations
between China and the Powers have been regu-
lated, for the most part, by communications
through the Tsungli Yamen, an anomalous affix
to the Department of Inferior States and Depen-
dencies. This Board has generally been composed
of about a dozen members of various degrees of
rank, many of them with no experience in foreign
affairs, or, indeed, knowledge of them, sometimes
appointed to their posts for the express reason that
they were so absolutely ignorant of the topics under
discussion that it was then simply impossible for
them to block the progress of necessary business,
which they might do from outside by acting as a
censorate. To the ordinary obstructions of Orien-
tal diplomacy have been added in China the jea-
lousy of the various Powers of one another, of
which full advantage has been taken by the
Chinese in impeding and often neutralising any
concessions which might be made. In recent
years more especially it has been true of this
wearisome Board that, like the chariots of Pha-
raoh, its wheels " drave heavily," so that Lord
Salisbury was abundantly justified in characterising
it as simply " a machine to register the amount of
pressure brought to bear upon it."

Many generations of Chinese and Manchu states-
men have come into relations with foreigners during
the forty years of diplomatic and other intercourse,
and for many of these Orientals Occidentals have

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 121

come to entertain a high regard. But the relations
have for the most part been public and formal. Al-
though the Yam6n Ministers have gone to the Le-
gations for occasional banquets, it has always been
noticeable that there were no return visits at their own
homes, the effort to introduce such an innovation a
few years since being a blank failure. With the
exception of the missionaries, it has still remained
true, after more than a generation of life in Peking,
that its homes are closed to outsiders.

The number of cases treated in the various hos-
pitals, especially in the pioneer one of the London
Mission, has amounted to hundreds of thousands,
perhaps even to a million or more, and many wide
and effectual doors have thus been opened to the
Chinese heart ; but, taking Peking as a whole, it
must be called an anti-foreign city from first to last.
It has long been known that the native pundits who
teach foreigners the language would not recognise
their pupils on the street should they meet tliem,
because, whatever their private views might be, to
do so would cause the pundit to lose " face," or self-
respect. And what was true of scholars was, to a
considerable extent, the case also with the trades-
men, who were willing enough to absorb the
foreign dollars, but who despised their owners ;
the same was also true, to a large extent, of the
working class, even the coolies, who felt them-
I selves immeasurably the superiors of those for
whom they toiled, a view not perhaps unlike that

122 CHINA FROM WITHIN

entertained by the jews in Babylon toward their
conquerors.

There has never in history been a time when
foreigners in North China have not been called
opprobrious nicknames, often to their faces and
constantly behind their backs, one of the most
common originating at Tientsin when the Allies
first arrived, to wit, " Mao-tzu," or more fully,
" Hung Mao-tzu " — Red-haired (Devil). This
phrase has been heard screamed at one by in-
fants just learning to talk, and muttered by old
men and women, until it has seemed too deeply
ingrained to be disused in the life-time of any now
living. The Southern City of Peking has always
prided itself upon being far more pronouncedly anti-
foreign than the Tartar City. It has steadily re-
sisted every effort to buy a foot of its sacred soil for
missionary purposes ; and, if there have been occa-
sional exceptions to the failure of such attempts,
they have but served to emphasize the general
rule.

Within recent years the railway has been brought
to the very gate of the Southern City, and an elec-
tric railway formed the last link in the line of rapid
communication. There was a telegraph office, first
in the Southern City, and later in the vicinity of the
Tsungli Yam^n itself. Public sentiment in a coun-
try like China, while very real and very despotic,
is so unlike that in any Western lands, that it is
almost impossible for an Occidental to comprehend

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING

123

It can be gently led, but it cannot be driven.
■ If the reforms of two years since had come at suit-
able intervals, with time to prepare the public mind
for them, there might have been no riots and no
serious reaction. As it was, being delivered in
loads of forty tons each on the deck of the ship-
of-State, they well-nigh upset it. The reaction
I once having set in, it carried everything before
I it, and the latent hostility to railways, telegraphs,
electricity, and all the new fads, took tangible
shape as soon as an opportunity occurred.

The railway to Tientsin was absolutely de-
stroyed. The telegraph poles were sawn off near
the ground ; everything which had a foreign aspect,
everything which was in any way suggestive of
foreigners, was included in the general ruin. All
the numerous summer houses at the Western Hills,
including the new ones just built at great expense
by the British Legation, were reduced to a wreck.
I The race -course and grand - stand were obliter-
lated, and the foreign cemetery desecrated past
belief, willows thirty years old being sawn down
and carried away, the enclosing walls dug up and
carried off down to the bottom, the grave-stones
and monuments overthrown and pulverised as far
as possible. Thirteen of the graves were dug into,
the corpses taken out and burned, the ground be-
ing still strewn with fragments of bones, cloth and
buttons.

Large detachments of the troops of Yung-lu,

124

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Commander-in-Chief of the Chih-li Army, of those
of Tungfuh-siang (a ruffian from Kan-su, who
arrived in Peking two years ago, and who has
exerted a sinister influence ever since), and also
of Ma YU-k'un, were detailed to "guard the Lega-
tions," which presently signified to make war ^on
them. These soldiers were related to the Boxers
as scorpions to grasshoppers, and reduced the city
to an acute pitch of misery such as it has not known
since the arrival of foreigners. Many families were
extinguished, and in others only one or two out of
eight or ten members remain alive. Hundreds of
house doors are walled up entirely, which often
means that there is no one left The savages
from Kan-su, who follow General Tung, speak a
strange dialect almost unintelligible to the Peking-
ese, but they have written their names in blood.
They are to the Chinese here what the Chaldeans
from afar were to the ancient Jews, "a hasty and
a bitter people."

The ruin of all Christians has been mentioned.
The followers of foreigners were all called " Mao-
tzu." Those who had traded with them, or aided
them in any way, were styled " Erh Mao-tzu," or
Secondary Devils ; and those who were related to
such, or who helped them to escape, were called
" San Mao-tzu," or Tertiary Devils, and all of them
were liable to be plundered at sight. With a base-
line of this width, it is easy to see what a sweep is
included. During the week of burning, the com-

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 125

paratively few foreign houses by no means sufficed
) quench the unquenchable thirst for places to loot
[ and to destroy. Some days one could count six or
I eight distinct fires in different quarters, the greatest
of them all being the destructive conflagration out-
side the Ch'ien-m6n, or front gale of the Southern
City, where were situated the richest shops and the
■fniost flourishing trade of Peking, The compradore
■of the Hong-kong Bank (afterwards himself killed
as an " Erh Mao-tzu ") estimated the loss in this
fire alone at five million pounds sterling ! It is
impossible to say how great an area has been de-
stroyed by fire, but the places are numerous and
some of the tracts are large. From the Russian
and American Legations west to Ch'ien-m^n, many
hundred yards wide and perhaps a quarter of a mile
long, there is now a stretch without a single build-
ing standing intact.

A similar devastation is seen to the north of the
northern gate of the Imperial City, and on a smaller
scale in multitudes of other localities as well. When
it was again possible for foreigners to traverse the
streets of Peking, the desolation which met the eye
was appalling. Dead bodies of soldiers lay in heaps,
or singly, in some instances covered with a torn old
mat, but always a prey to the now well-fed pariah
I dogs. Indeed, dead dogs and dead horses poisoned
•the air of every region. The huge pools of stag-
nant water were reeking with putrid corpses of man
and beast, lean cats staring wildly at the passer-by

126 CHINA FROM WITHIN

from holes broken in the front of shops boasting
such signs as " Perpetual Abundance," " Springs of
Plenty," " Ten Thousand Prosperities," and the oft-
quoted maxim from the Great Learning, "There is
a highway to the production of wealth." One might
see over the door of a place thrice looted, and lying
in utter ruin, the cheerful motto, " Peace and Tran-
quillity." For miles upon miles of the busiest streets
of the Northern and Southern City, not a single
shop was open for business, and scarcely a group
of persons was anywhere to be seen.

The Boxer movement was anti - foreign, even
foreign cloth, watches and matches being taboo.
One of the permanent mottoes everywhere dis-
played on their flags was the words, " Mieh
Yang " — exterminate foreigners. But the Capital
of the Chinese Empire had no sooner been occu-
pied, and its territory distributed for purposes of
patrol among the several military contingents re-
presented, than the Chinese began to adapt them-
selves to the new relations, with the same ease
with which water fits itself to the dish into which it
is poured.

The Japanese, having the command of the Chi-
nese written language, were the first to enter this
new field, and in three days the whole city was
inundated with little flags with a red disc in the
middle, and thousands of doors began to be orna-
mented with the legend, "Compliant Subjects of
the Japanese Nation." For some time it was com-

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING

127

mon to meet Chinese with such flags, the upper
space blank, and only the words, " Compliant Sub-
I jects," inserted, the nation to which they gave in
I their adherence being left to be ftUed in later — a
striking commentary on the "patriotism" of the
Chinese. Of ten men on the streets, eight would
probably be furnished with the flags {in cheap imi-
tation only, and much the worse for a heavy shower)
of different lands.

The advice, so often given by Chinese to one
I another, not to follow foreigners, has then brought
about this result, probably unique in the history
of mankind. Not only are flags made the sym-
bol of allegiance to other and unknown countries,
but the English language is tortured to compel it
to announce this allegiance. " Belong Japan " is
the notice on an old shed in the great Ha-ta Street.
" Noble and good Sirs," reads another placard,
" please do not shoot us. We are good people."
Surely never was there stranger and more unantici-
pated fulfilment of the prophecy that " The sons of
them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto
thee," than the circumstance that within a few doors
of a temple which served as a Boxer headquarters,
one now reads the surprising legend, " God Chris-
tianity men " ; while the remainder of the alley is
decorated with the reiterated petition, " Pray officer
exquse. Here good people." The temptation to
extort money for alleged protection is very great,
and it is to be confessed with shame that among the

128

CHINA FROM WITHIN

adventurers and scoundrels which follow the army,
there are those who have trailed the fair name of .
the United States and Great Britain in the dust
In an especially flagrant case, a man termed himself '
" Gervais Coek & Company," and blackmailed large
numbers of poor Chinese, wresting from them sil-
ver, goods, and even the title-deeds of their pro-
perly, as an equivalent for protection which he had
not power to give, and which in Russian patrol terri-
tory it was impudent to offer. This individual was
tried by court-martial, and sentenced to be shot, a
sentence none too severe, but not carried out.

To other evils inseparable from military occupa-
tion must be added that of pillage, which is forbid-
den in theory by some nations, but practised to some
extent by all soldiers. Day after day long lines of
mules may be seen loaded with the loot of silk-shops,
cloth-shops, grain-shops — with anything and every-
thing. The British policy is the most scientific, in
which everything is turned into a common stock, and
sold for the benefit of the occupying army. The
Russian plan is that of the Middle Ages, slightly
modified by a veneer of Christianity, and is accom-
panied by the violation of women on a scale which
leads to the suicides of hundreds of Chinese till the
wells are choked. The savagery of some of the
Russian troops is simply barbarism ; but there is no
nation which can throw stones at another in this
dreadful matter.

And all this has come upon Peking, and follows

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 129

the terrible evils which went before. There is not
only no business doing in Peking, but the very
sources of commercial prosperity have been cut up
by the roots. In the Northern City were four
allied banks, each with the character " Heng,"
denoting perpetuity, and the syndicate (owned by
a eunuch of the palace) was supposed to be as safe
as the Bank of England. In the third week in June,
the Chinese soldiers plundered each of the perpetui-
ties, which have ceased to exist — as have all other
cash-shops and banks. The streets are abundantly
supplied with bank bills, which blow hither and
thither with the gusts of wind and the swirls of
dust, and are impartially rooted in the gutters by
the few surviving pigs.

That the Boxer movement was essentially an
Imperial one is now proved beyond doubt. The
yellow handbills are headed with the words " Ch'in
Ming," denoting " In accordance with Imperial
Order" ; and their proclamations embody the same
language. They even went to the length of issuing
a new coin, of enormous size and thickness, with the
legend, " Tien Hsia T'ai P'ing " — " The Empire at
Peace " — a prophecy remote from the facts as de-
veloped.

The Manchu and Mongol palaces, in which these
schemes were devised and carried out, are now
abandoned. Prince Tuan is reported to have set
fire to his palace before he left Peking. That of
Prince Chung is occupied as Japanese headquarters.

1 30 CHINA FROM WITHIN

The hated missionaries, and the remnant of the
flock whom they have succeeded in saving, are now
living in the handsome dwellings of some of those
who lately tried to kill them, as the Children of
Israel occupied the fenced cities in the Land of
Canaan, cities which they neither built nor bought.
The capital of a country is that country in small,
and Peking is patrolled and governed by " The
Powers," which issue proclamations in Chinese for-
bidding disorder, and directing those who may have
complaints to whom to go. The city gates are the
centre of its life, and symbols of the power. The
outer brick tower of the Ch'ien-men caught fire from
the great conflagration set by the Boxers, and made
a magnificent spectacle while it was burning for a
day and a night. The other tower was accidentally
burned late in August.

The Japanese blew up the outer tower of the
Ch'i-hua Gate, and destroyed it, and fire was also
set to the outer tower of the Ha-ta Gate the day
after the foreign troops arrived. It is now a wreck,
having afforded a picturesque sight to those who
witnessed the bombardment of the southern ap-
proaches to the palace on August 15th, when the
three outer gates were blown in by American guns.
The Tung-pien and Sha-kuo Gates of the Southern
City were each broken in by shells the day before ;
and all the nine gates of the Northern City, as well
as the seven remaining ones of the Southern City,
are guarded by troops of the eight Powers co-operat-

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 131

ing in a military occupation. The stern portcullis
of the outer tower of the Front Gate (never opened
except when the Emperor passed through) is de-
stroyed ; and for the first time there is a straight
road from the palace grounds, through all the
numerous gateways, to the Yung Ting Men, in the
middle of the south face of the Southern City, not
for the Emperor, but for every Chinese and every
foreigner alike. It is a Great Wall of China oblite-
rated at a blow.

Within the last-named gate, on the western side
of the great street, is a spacious enclosure known
as the Temple of Agriculture, the main contents of
which are two large halls, and a smaller one to one
side. The latter was used for the storage of the
gilded and lacquered specimens of agricultural im-
plements—the plough, the seed-drill, the harrow,
the brush-harrow, the spade, the broom, the pitch-
fork, and smaller utensils such as baskets and broad
hats. All of these are unceremoniously hustled into
the open air, and some of the smaller articles furnish
convenient fuel for the 9th and 14th Regiments of
U.S. Infantry, whose officers make the building
their headquarters. The rear hall is now a hospital
and flies the Red Cross flag, while the front hall is
the Commissariat headquarters of the American de-
tachment of the Army of Occupation, and displays
long rows of hams, cases of tobacco, boxes of army
beans, and barrels of beef. The marble altar, where
the Emperor worships old legendary Shen Nung,

132

CHINA FROM WITHIN

is a convenient place for the cavalry horses to be
left in charge of the nearest coolie ; and the choice
spot of earth, which the Emperor is supposed to
cultivate with his own hand every successive spring,
as an example to the tillers of the soil all over the
Empire, is, amid the dense growth of omnipresent
weeds, quite indistinguishable.

Across the wide street opposite the Temple to
Agriculture, with its altar to Earth, is the vast area,
at least a mile on each face, enclosing the Temple of
Heaven. For many, many years, it has been abso-
lutely inaccessible to foreigners, and even during the
minority of the present Emperor it has always been
difficult to set one's foot inside. Now there is not
a single Chinese anywhere to be seen, the keepers
having been all driven away by the British when
they took possession immediately on reaching Pe-
king. One can drive his cart quite up to the lofty
terrace leading to the triple cerulean domes denot-
ing the three-fold Heaven. Each gate is sentried
by a swarthy Sikh soldier, the personification of the
domination of a greater Empire than that of Rome
in its best days, who merely glances at you as you
pass, or asks unintelligible questions in Hindustani,
and makes a respectful salaam when he is informed
in several European languages, as well as in Chinese,
that you are unable to catch the drift of his obser-
vations.

The great building devoted to the Ancestral
Tablets of the Manchu Dynasty stands wide open.

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 133

It contains a huge tablet on the northern side, to
Imperial Heaven, and eight cases — four on a side —
to the eight Emperors who have thus far reigned
during the 256 years which have elapsed since Shun
Chih took his seat upon the throne. Every one
of the eight cases, with heavy carved doors, has been
broken open, and every one of the eight tablets to
the " T'ai Tsu," "Sheng Tsu," and the other dei-
fied ancestors has been taken away by British
officers for transmission to the British Museum — an
act of more than justifiable reprisal for Chinese
treatmeat of the foreign cemetery, and also per-
haps the most stunning blow which the system of
ancestral worship ever received.

The Emperor's Hall of Fasting is the head-
quarters of the British Army in this part of the
city, and every day it is partly filled with many cart-
loads of loot — silks, fans, silver and jade ornaments,
embroidered clothing and the like — which is daily
forwarded to the British Legation, where it is sold at
auction for the benefit of the army, and is soon re-
placed by as much more. The personal apartments
of the Emperor in the rear serve as the bedrooms
of the officers, who look mildly surprised when the
circumstance is communicated to them at their dinner,
and merely give an inquiring glance as much as to
say : " Well, what of it, don't you know ? "

The Government of China has always been con-
ducted through the agency of the six Boards, of
War, Rites, Works, Revenue, Civil Office, and

'34

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Punishments, mostly situated on a street named
after one of the most important ones, the Board of
War. At the wide doors concealing the arcana of
this Chinese official life, foreigners have for the
most part hitherto gazed from afar. At present
the doors of them all stand wide open, and any
who list can wander through the courts at will. The
Board of War is the headquarters of an Indian regi-
ment, the tall and dusky warriors of the hill tribes
of the Indian Frontier making themselves at home
in the ample apartments at their disposal. The
thrifty Japanese contrived to get the west side of
this same street redistributed so as to come within
their lines, and then sent a caravan of mules work-
ing day and night for a long period and carried off
from the Board of Revenue treasury a sum reported
to be at least three million taels of silver ingots.
This same Oriental race, who appeared to know
much more about Peking than the Pekingese them-
selves, promptly fastened their talons on all the
principal Imperial granaries, and are said to have in
their possession rice to the value of 7,500.000 gold
dollars, their indemnity being thus automatically
paid with no diplomatic pressure whatever, or any
consent asked of any " Power."

Immediately to the south of the Imperial City,
and adjacent to the British Legation on the north-
western side, lies a large tract enclosed by a lofty
wall, which is generally known as the Carriage Park.
There are several spacious halls, one of them

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING

I3S

among the very largest to be found anywhere in
China, and these are designed for the storage of
the various sedan-chariots and vehicles of strange
and hitherto undescribed varieties built or presented
for Imperial use. This Carriage Park, it should be
noted, was a grievous thorn in the side of the be-
sieged occupants of the Legation throughout the
siege, as one of the most threatening barricades was
built in it, and the rifle-shots from that quarter were
incessant. It was suspected, moreover, that it was
intended to explode a mine under some of the nearest
Legation buildings — only a few rods distant — a sus-
picion which proved to have been well founded, as
the mine had been dug and the fuse prepared. The
British relief corps had no sooner occupied the Le-
gation than a hole was blown in the Carriage Park
wall by means of dynamite, and the swarthy Pathans
and Baluchis filed into the large pastures thus placed
at their disposal.

It did not take long to run out of doors the
lacquered red and yellow Imperial equipages, where
they were afterwards exposed to the vicissitudes of
the hot August sun and the pouring rains. Moun-
tains of paraphernalia were found in every building —
silk cushions, satin pillows, gorgeous harnesses and
trappings of every description and of no description
at all. Mule loads of this elegant rubbish was
brought into the Legation for sale by auction, or
perhaps for transmission on to the distant Isle of
the Ocean whence came the " fierce and untamable

136

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Barbarian " (as the British used to be termed in
Chinese dispatches). Both in the expansive grounds
of the Carrii^e Park and in the far larger ones of
the Temple of Heaven, parks of artillery stand
serenely awaiting fresh orders, the mules meantime
trampling in the mire hundreds of moth-eaten officicd
hats made of felt, and furlongs of once elegant and
costly silk coverings of bridal chairs and palanquins.
The tall weeds, undisturbed for no one can say how
long by the hand of man or the hoof of beast, rapidly
disappear, and the entire spectacle is one adapted to
make Celestials weep.

Adjoining the Carriage Park on the east, and the
British Legation on the north, stood the series of
extensive courtyards and halls which contained the
Hanlin, or Imperial Chinese University of highest
grade, one of the most ancient and most famous
seats of learning in the world. During the early
days of the siege, to set fire to the Hanlin would be
to roast the British Legation and every one in it.
As a result of herculean efforts the fires were put
out, but nearly all the halls were destroyed. The
principal literary monument of the most ancient
people in the world was obliterated in an afternoon,
and the wooden stereotype plates of the most valu-
able works became a prey to the flames, or were
used in building barricades, or for kindling for the
British marines. Priceless literary treasures were
tumbled into lotus-ponds, wet with the floods of
water used to extinguish the fires, and later buried

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 137

after they had begun to rot, to diminish the dis-
agreeable odour. Expensive camphor-wood cases
containing the rare and unique Encyclopaedia of
Yung-Iu {a lexicographical work resembling the
Century Dictionary, but probably many hundred
times as extensive) were filled with earth to form
a part of the ramparts for defence, while the innu-
merable volumes comprising this great thesaurus
were dispersed in every direction, probably to every
library in Europe, as well as to innumerable private
collections, while not a few of the volumes, being
thrown into the common, will mould and be buried
like the rest. Thousands of Hanlin Essays lay
about the premises, the sport of every breeze, serving
as firewood for the troops. Odd volumes of choice
works furnished the waste paper of the entire Le-
gation for nearly two months, and were found in the
kitchens, used by the coolies as pads for carrying
bricks on men's shoulders, and lay in piles in the
outer streets and were ground into tatters under the
wheels of passing carts when traffic was once more
resumed. Of the varied forms of Nemesis con-
nected with the uprising against foreigners in China,
the fate of the ancient and famous Hanlin Yuan
takes perhaps the foremost place. Out of twenty or
twenty-five halls, but two remain, and it is impos-
sible not to see that the ideas which this University
represented have received a refutation which must
convince even the most obstinate of Confucianists
that the past era is for ever closed.

138

CHINA FROM WITHIN

The part which the Tsungli Yamen, or Foreign
Office, has taken in relations between China and the
West has been already mentioned. It has been an
Oriental Circumlocution Office, not to transact, but
to prevent the transaction of, business. It is itself
an epitome of the double-dealing, shuffling and
treacherous policy which has marked the course of
China's intercourse with her "Sister Nations." A
just fate has overtaken it, for it is now guarded by
a party of Japanese soldiers, and the various inter-
preters of the Legations went on a set day and
unitedly sealed each bureau containing the records
of the correspondence with his own country, so that
they are in the safe custody of all the Powers, while
not accessible to any one solely. The humiliation
of a great Empire could scarcely go lower than this.

The single individual responsible before God and
man for the misery and ruin which the progress of
the Iho Ch'uan (Boxers) has brought in its train is
the Empress- Dowager herself. It was she who
fostered the scheme, and it was she who poured
oil upon the flames which she professed to be trying
to subdue. Next in importance, owing to his posi-
tion, was Prince Tuan, father of the youth selected
last winter as the successor of Kuang Hsil The
Empress is supposed to have been most influenced
by his advice, as he had more at stake than any
other subject."

Dr. Smith here mentions the names of many

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 139

high-placed officials and their guilt. We continue
to quote, reminding the reader that the following
paragraph was written in August.

" Yung-lu is supposed to have fled, and the same
is true of Tung Fu-hslang, who has the satisfaction
of seeing his counsels followed to the letter, with
the inevitable results. It has been already men-
tioned that the Princes Tuan and Chuang are re-
fugees ; the palace of one of them in ashes, the
other, a headquarters for Japanese soldiers. Yu
Lu, the Governor-General of the great province of
Chih-li, who occupied a post the most distinguished
in the whole Empire, after the capture of Tientsin
by the allied forces, committed suicide, leaving
twenty or thirty millions of Chinese without a ruler.
Reports differ in regard to the bitter and unscru-
pulous Li Ping-heng, but all agree in his death,
either as the result of a wound in battle, or by self-
poisoning — the legitimate Confucian expression of
deep discontent with one's fate.

" The Empress- Dowager herself left the palace,
where she had so long exercised a despotism as
absolute as in this age of the world any mortal can
enjoy, in the early morning hours of August 15th, in
great haste and fear, disguised as a common woman,
with an ordinary cart for her use and an insigni-
ficant procession, so that for two days it was not
ascertained for certain that she had left at all. The
troops of her favourite, General Tung, ravaged the
country in advance of the Imperial refugees, so that

140

CHINA FROM WITHIN

it was difficult for them to get enough to support
life, and many of the attendants are reported to have
deserted and returned to Peking for this reason."

Dr. Smith had no means of knowing the Empress'
whereabouts. He says, " Whether she has gone
to Je-h6, the hunting grounds which her husband,
Hsien Feng, fled to in similar circumstances, forty
years ago, or is testing the hospitality of some Mon-
gol prince, is not yet known." He mentions Hsi-an
Fu, saying that " it enjoys the advantage of being
practically inaccessible to the world. Here she may
set up a tinsel Court, and endeavour to go through
the forms of a government the reality of which has
passed away for ever."

"On the morning of the 28th of August, two weeks
after the occupation of Peking, small detachments
of the eight military forces concerned, marching in
the order of the numbers of troops embarked in the
campaign, made a forma] entry into the Forbidden
City, and were there reviewed by the Senior
General in command, after which the British field
artillery fired a salute of one and twenty guns, to
indicate that the occupation in force of the inner-
most shrine of Chinese excluslveness was now com-
pletely accomplished. Thus was added the last
touch to the punishment of Peking.

" What is it that the Manchu nobles and the Em-
press-Dowager have achieved in their effort to ex-
terminate the Ocean Men, and to drive Western
civilization out of the Celestial Empire ? Disaster,

THE PUNISHMENT OF PEKING 141

humiliation, and abject defeat such as in modern
days are rare, not to say unexampled. In a tempest
of insane passion they have exiled themselves, put
an end to Manchu domination, and lost the Decree
of Heaven by which alone they have claimed to
rule. 'Whom the gods would destroy, they first
make mad.*"

144 CHINA FROM WITHIN

Chinese to be shut up to the Confucian classics for
mental pabulum, and not to have these three evils
largely developed.

The extraordinary way in which those books
speak of the Emperor of China, of his unique posi-
tion relative to other rulers, the extravagant lan-
guage used about China, and, in comparison, the
infinite insignificance of other countries. The ideas
that all monarchs are vassals of the Son of Heaven,
and all countries tributary to China are dogmas
which have their root in these books, and still live
in the minds of scholars in many parts of China.

The practical difficulties which have beset our
diplomatists in China for the last sixty years on this
score have been great and constant.

Witness the tedious and protracted conferences
over the " audience question," which at last resulted
in foreign Ambassadors being able to have audience
of the Emperor of China without prostrating them-
selves. The point was not gained till June, 1873.
The classics thus foster pride. To the exclusive
study of these books may be attributed much of
the ignorance of officials, especially in matters re-
lating to foreign countries.

And the same books 'greatly foster their supersti-
tion. Polytheism has its root here, and this opened
the way later on for idolatry to enter. Lucky days,
fortune-telling, omens, the finding out of Heaven's
will by stalks and the tortoise-shell — all have their
place here.

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 145

The influence of imaginary beasts or reptiles such
as dragons, phcenixes, " ch'i lins," etc., are, in the
classics, held to affect both things celestial and
things terrestrial.

In making the Government of China the scape-
goat for the uprising, we must mention another
moral evil which has very much to do with the
whole question. We refer to insincerity.

The nations of the West have stood appalled at
the unfathomable depths of guile, deceit, duplicity and
subterfuge, which the whole movement has revealed.

Can this be at all accounted for ? Man, of course,
is a fallen creature, and we are familiar with what
the Bible says about the " heart " of man and its
" deceitfulness " ; but still, in all nations deceit is
not in the same degree of concentration.

We believe that again the classical writings of
the Chinese, and even the example of Confucius
himself, are causes which have not a little to do
with this lamentable state of things.

Dr. Ernst Faber, after speaking of the excel-
lency of much Confucian teaching, sums up its
errors and defects under twenty-four heads. One
of these {the loth) says, "Though confidence" {or
sincerity) "is indeed frequently insisted upon, its
presupposition, viz., truthfulness in speaking, is
never practically urged, but rather the reverse."

As to Confucius. He is a man who has been
strangely overrated. In China it is common for
the Chinese to speak of their ideographs or char-

146

CHINA FROM WITHIN

^^M anc

acters as "Confucian characters" — though they
were in existence over r.ooo years before he was

born. So too the four books and five classics of
China are commonly called the "Confucian classics,"
though indeed he was the author of only one of
them, and that the most meagre of the lot, devoid
even of literary beauty. It is called the Spring and
Autumn, and consists of the history of a space of
barely 250 years.

Dr. Legge says that "we find in it the briefest
possible intimations of matters . . . without the
slightest tincture of literary ability in the composi-
tion, . . . So-and-so took place. That is all.
No details are given ; no judgment is expressed."

Of this book, Mencius says, "Confucius made the
Spring and Autumn, and unfilial sons were struck
with terror,"

Confucius actually stakes his reputation in after
ages on it, " It is by the Spring and Autumn,"
said he, " that men will know me, and also by it
that they will condemn me,"

On this, Dr, Legge makes the following pregnant
remarks, " Was his own heart misgiving him, when
he thus spoke of men condemning him for the
Spring and Autumn ? The fact is that the annals
are evasive and deceptive. ' The Spring and
Autumn^ says Kung Yang, who commented on
t within a century of its composition, ' conceals [the
truth] out of regard to the high in rank, to kinship,
and to men of worth.' And I have shown in the

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING

147

fifth volume of my Chinese Classics that this ' con-
cealing ' covers all the ground embraced in our
three English words — ignoring, concealing, and
misrepresenting." Dr. Legge then goes on to say
he longs to be able to deny that Confucius was the
author of the book, but this cannot be done. He ends
up by saying, " Truthfulness was one of the sub-
jects that Confucius often insisted on with his dis-
ciples ; but the Spring and Autumn has led his
countrymen to conceal the truth from themselves
and others, whenever they think it would injuriously
affect the reputation of the Empire or of its sages."

Dr. Morrison notices some striking examples of
this in his account of the siege in Peking. His in-
sight into "China from within" is shown in such
a passage as this, " It was quite in accordance with
Chinese custom, that a despatch saying that the
seizure of the Taku Forts had been threatened
should be sent after the seizure had been effected.
What is distasteful to them to say, they avoid saying."
Straightforwardness is with the Chinese barely a
virtue. The following saying of Confucius is sig-
nificant, " Straightforwardness without propriety
becomes rudeness."

The history of China's dealings with foreign
nations keeps repeating itself. Speaking of the
Government of China at the time after the Tientsin
Treaty in i860. Dr. Williams says, "What could be
done with a Government which would never con-
descend to appreciate its own weakness, would never

148

CHINA FROM WITHIN

I pouiicai

h Chinese

^^^ chou by

speak or act the truth, and would never treat any
other nation as an equal ? "

A few hurtful sayings and doctrines of the sage
may here be quoted, which have doubtless not been '
only used once or twice in fomenting these troubles.

1. " Beware of strange customs." ,

2. " The Master said, ' He is no disciple of mine.
My little children, beat the drum and assail him.' "

3. Also his doctrine on blood-revenge, which is
directly responsible for the innumerable bloody clan-
feuds which so fill Chinese history.

This may be thought a long digression, but so in-
timate is its connection with the subject in hand that
we have ventured to make it.

We maintain, then, that the cause above all causes
of the uprising was the pride, ignorance and super-
stition of the high Manchu officials. We can hardly
say the only cause, but out of one hundred parts we
believe it accounts for ninety.

We leave ten parts for the other side, as the
proverb "it takes two to make a quarrel" usually
holds good.

Let us now consider other factors in the causes of
the crisis under several heads.

I. What is it on the part of foreigners that has so
aroused this Manchu pride and wrath ? Rightly
or wrongly, we believe th^ir answer would be, " the
political action of foreign countries in acquiring
Chinese territory, especially the seizure of Kiao-
chou by the Germans."

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 149

The seizure of territory is constantly referred to
in the edicts, some of which we have quoted In part
or in full in earlier chapters.

The Empress-Dowager's secret edict to Viceroys
of November 21st, 1 899, speaks thus : —

" The various Powers cast upon us looks of tiger-
like voracity, hustling each other in their endeavours
to be the first to seize upon our innermost territories ; "
and, in its last clauses, speaks of " the ruthless hand
of the invader."

In December, there was another secret edict to
Viceroys, directing them to energetically prepare
for war against the foreigners, who " like tigers were
devouring the land."

One of the chief proclamations about the begin-
ning of the movement opens thus, —

"Foreigners have for forty years upturned the
Empire, have taken our territory, and seized upon
our revenues."

It was not till after the councils in the Imperial
palace (referred to in chap. VI.), when extermination
of foreigners had been decided on, that religion
was brought up in Imperial decrees.

On June 21st, a decree was issued in which re-
ligion is mentioned in adverse terms, but even then
territory is the burning question. Speaking of
foreigners, it says, " At first they were amenable
to Chinese control, but for the past thirty years
they have taken advantage of Chinese forbear-
ance, to encroach on China's territory, to trample

152

CHINA FROM WITHIN

nearly always have officials, often high-placed ones,
to be their planners, instigators, or abettors. That
those murders would have taken place if the Manchu
Government had been sincere in respecting the
treaty rights of foreigners, and Li ping-heng, the
Governor of the Province, had been other than
anti-foreign, is not for a moment to be believed.

Some years ago, a friend of ours at Hankow told
us the following story : —

It was a time of great unrest all along the Yang-
tse Valley, Green and Argent had been murdered
at Wu-sueh. Two Scandinavians had been done
to violent death. The Viceroy professed himself
powerless to deal with the uprising. " The people,"
said he, "have got beyond my control." The
British Consul, however, was a strong man, and
knew something of the Chinese. He informed the
Viceroy that a British gunboat was in the river,
and that if the disturbances were not quelled within
forty-eight hours, the town of Wu-ch'ang would be
bombarded, and the Viceroy's residence marked out
for the first honours. The telegraph and runners
carried the Viceroy's messages. In forty-eight
hours the disturbance was at an end !

For the accuracy of the facts, we cannot vouch ;
the truth contained in the story holds good. In
the acquisition of territory then, even in the case of
Kiao-chou, China has no real ground for grievance.
If we go to the root of the matter, China is to blame
in not fulfilling her treaty obligations.

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 153

. If the Chinese would note the political action
f of foreign Governments, we must acknowledge their
inaction.

The permission of the first coup dHat of October,
1898, whereby the reactionary Empress deposed
the progressive young Emperor, was a political
blunder.

The permission of the second coup d'itat of
January, 1900, was another.

The permission of Yii-hsien to be made Governor
of Shan-si was a third.

These were mistakes of European Governments
generally ; all the great Powers were more or less
concerned. Doubtless action would have been
difficult. Owing to the conflicting interests and
mutual jealousies of the Powers, a consensus of
opinion would have been hard to arrive at. We
do not discuss the question, but merely point out
three instances of political inaction which had
disastrous results.

3. The missionary problem.

However it may be accounted for, the fact
remains, that the missionaries are somewhat gene-
rally held to be at the bottom of all this trouble.

That the Manchu Government has ever sincerely
appreciated the work of missioniiries, is open to
doubt. If the present young Emperor had been
allowed to have his way, any doubts on that score
would have ere now been dissipated.

Yet even the Empress- Dowager's Government

•54

CHINA FROM WITHIN

has not hesitated to speak well of tbeir work. In
June, 1891, the Chinese Foreign Office submitted
this memorial to the throne.

"The religion of the West has for its object the
inculcation of virtue, and in Western countries it is
everywhere practised. Its origin dates a long time
past, and on the establishment of commercial inter-
course between China and foreign Powers, a clause
was inserted in the treaties to the eflfect that ' per-
sons professing or teaching the Christian religion
should enjoy full protection of their persons and pro-
perty, and be allowed free exercise of their religion."

" The hospitals and orphanages maintained by
the missionaries all evince a spirit of benevolent
enterprise. Of late years, when distress has be-
fallen any portion of the Empire, missionaries and
others have never failed to come forward to assist
the sufferers by subscribing money and distributing
relief For their cheerful readiness to do good, and
the pleasure they take in works of charity, they
assuredly deserve high commendation,"

Nevertheless, the Manchus are saturated with
suspicion, they will have it that we want their
country ; they generally believe, too, that our re-
ligious teaching is a cloak for political moves.
"Ah! they have_ not come here for nothing, they
want to steal our hearts, and after that, our 'hills
and streams." " This is a sentiment common a-
mongst the people, which has come down to them
from higher sources. The proof that this uprising

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 155

was essentially anti-foreign, and only anti-missionary
because it was anti-foreign, is to our mind conclusive

. — it is, we believe, capable of demonstration.

I In the first place the anti-foreign policy of the
reactionaries became the Government policy of
China in September. 1898, and was steadily pur-
sued from that time till its culmination in June,

I 1900. In the inflammatory edicts of November

I and December, 1899 — which could hardly be more
hostile — not the remotest reference is naade to mis-
sionaries. The bloody edict which, in June last, was
telegraphed all over China, was in brief but preg-
nant language ; it ran thus : " You must kill the
foreigners outright " (it does not say " missionaries"),
" if foreigners retreat " («>., try to escape) "kill them
immediately." (Yang ren pih shah, yang ren t'ui
hui chih shah.) "A copy of this edict, wired from
Peking, was confidentially given to a fellow-mis-
sionary by a native friend, out of the Brigadier-
General's residence in Nanyang Fu Honan, in the
beginning of July this year." •

The first official edict speaking disparagingly of
missions and missionaries, with which we are ac-
quainted, was issued as a decree on June 21st, 1900.
It must be remembered that then the Government
was an oligarchy of murderers and rufiians with
Prince Tuan at their head. They were madmen,
entirely bereft of a judicial mind. On that very
day their soldiers were engaged in bombarding
' North China Herald, October loth, rgoo.

156

CHINA FROM WITHIN

the Legations, yet even then the language is not
so strong as might be supposed. The decree,
speaking of foreigners, says : —

"In the reigns of Tao kuang and Hsien Feng
they were allowed to trade, and they also asked
leave to propagate their religion, a request which
the Throne reluctantly granted." Then followed
the remarks about encroaching on " China's terri-
tory," etc., quoted on page 149, and then "They
oppressed peaceful citizens, and insulted the gods
and sages, exciting the most burning indignation
among the people. Hence the burning of chapels,
and the slaughter of the converts by the patriotic
braves " (Boxers). " The decrees declaring Boxers
and converts to be equally the children of the State
were issued in the hope of removing the old feud
between people and converts, and extreme kindness
was shown to the strangers from afar." It then
goes on to speak of the ingratitude of the foreigners
for all this kindness, shown by their taking the
Taku Forts, etc. ; and promises rewards to those
that distinguish themselves in battle."'

'On the 2nd of July, 1900, there was issued this
edict: —

" Ever since foreign nations began the propaga-
tion of their religion, there have been many instances
throughout the country of ill-feeling between the
people and the converts. All this is due to faulty
administration on the part of the local authorities,

» North China Herald. * Idem.

■
■

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 157

giving rise to feuds. The truth is that the converts
also are children of the State, and among them are
not wanting good and worthy people ; but they
have been led away by false doctrines, and have
relied on the missionary for support, with the result
that they have committed many misdeeds.
The Throne is now exhorting every member of the
Boxers to render patriotic service, and take up his
part against the enemies of his country, so that the
whole population may be of one mind. . . . All
those among the converts who repent of their
former errors, and give themselves up to the autho-
rities, shall be allowed to reform, and their past
shall be ignored. ... As hostilities have now
broken out between China and foreign nations, the
missionaries of every country must be driven away
at once to their own countries, so that they may not
linger here and make trouble. But it is important
that measures be taken to secure their protection on
their journey."

The edicts of June had already secured the
massacre of scores of missionaries. This of July
saved a few lives in Honan, but many were mas-
sacred later than this.

The charges in these two edicts brought against
missionaries are : —

1. Insulting the gods and sages.

2. The ill-feeling they stir up by Christianity
between the converts and the people (though the
" local authorities" are blamed for this).

Ij8

CHINA FROM WITHIN

3. Oppressing peaceful citizens.

4. Teaching the people false doctrines and get-
ting them to rely on the missionary for support (? in
disputes or lawsuits).

5. Making the people disloyal.

Seeing these charges were made so late in the
day, and considering who were the men that made
them, it is not worth while to discuss them. Some
of them will be touched upon under other heads.

Some notice, too, may profitably be made here of
the statements of some of the Chinese Ambas-
sadors in foreign countries. We refer to Lo Feng-
Luh, the Chinese Minister in London; Wu ting-fang,
in Washington ; and Yang yu, in St. Petersbuig.
The role these men have played in the matter of
the siege of the Legations is well known. That
some of them were, in that matter, guilty of "daunt-
less mendacity," as Dr. Morrison affirmed, the
language of the edicts has now made clear. The
speech of Wu ting-fang at the parliament of reli-
gions in Chicago on Confucianism is remembered
with grief by lovers of truth ; Yang yu has taken
upon himself to say, in a letter full of bitter animus
against Christianity, concerning the native Chris-
tians, that "as a rule" their "conversion is used
only as a mantle under which to defraud and damage
their countrymen with impunity."

He affirms too that " the missionaries are detested,
because their object is to make converts of us who
are unwilling to exchange the religion delivered to

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 159

us by our fathers for any other." The obvious
answer to this statement is : If they were " un-
willing," they could not have become "converts";
and if "willing." then they were not made "con-
verts," but became converts of their own free will.

Lo Feng Luh's statement that ^ " there were no
Chinese Christians at all, except here and there a
worthless fellow, who had joined a mission for what
he could get," is only to be equalled in its colossal
ignorance by what he said in a speech at a dinner,
given by foreigners to him at Tientsin on his
appointment as Minister to Great Britain, that
the assembled company were " a// very good Con-
fucianists."

The views of such men on missionaries and their
work will not weigh much with discriminating men,
though doubtless their popularity will, by such talk,
be increased among those who hate missions.

We take it, then, that as far as documentary evi-
dence goes, the theory that the uprising was due to
the propagandism of missionaries cannot be sus-
tained.

4. The action of Roman Catholic priests in law-
suits, and their assumption of civil rank.

That Roman Catholic priests{we would fain believe
they are unworthy members of their fraternity only)
have, through their action in the law-courts, caused
justice to miscarry on behalf of some of their con-
verts, and brow-beaten and even terrorized Chinese
' CMS. Intelligencer, p. 871, November, 1900.

i6o

CHINA FROM WITHIN

officials, backed up by the political power of the
French Minister, is, we fear, a report only too well
founded.

As to their official status, Sir Thomas Suther-
land, at the Annual Dinner of the China Associa-
tion, held on November 7th, 1900, said : —

" He was certain that it had been a most ruinous
and false step for any European Power to demand
for its missionaries the recognition of their civil
rank — a proceeding which had given serious cause
of offence to the just prejudices of the Chinese
people."

The statement was received with cheers.

It is true, report has it, Li Hung Chang has said,
that the raising of Roman Catholic missionaries
to the grade of officials is responsible for the Boxer
outbreak. This is certainly not to be accepted.
Nevertheless the Jesuits, in gaining the point, com-
mitted a huge and mischievous blunder. The
claims of infallible Popes to universal supremacy
as " king of kings," and the holders of the " double
sword of ecclesiastical and secular power," «ecessi-
iate their priests being political agents. The severe
reverses suffered in the past over this very point
avail not to teach them.

Rome never changes. She is slow to learn that
" My kingdom is not of this world,"

The action of the Romish missionaries in China
is, we believe, creative of friction, over and beyond
that friction which may be called inevitable and

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING i6i

legitimate ; viz., that which is caused by the intro-
duction into China of a more spiritual religion and
a higher civilization.

And now as to Protestant missionaries. How
far has the Government of China any just cause
of grievance against them ? Let the following
quotation from an article in the North China
Herald of October 17th, 1900, by Rev. W. A.
Cornaby, supply an answer : —

" As a fact, the Roman Catholic and the Pro-
testant missionaries in China are two distinct
classes, as indeed they are in the West, and would
naturally be everywhere. And as they took differ-
ent ground on the subject of ' missionary status,'
so they adopt different standpoints generally, though
happily with little personal feeling on perhaps either
side. For in China a man's sympathies must either
broaden or shrivel up, and a healthy broadening of
sympathy, a cosmopolitan view of things, which
need involve no sacrifice of principle, seems to be
prevalent.

" But in a sympathetic article on two Jesuit
martyrs of the sixteenth century, an Edinburgh
Reviewer of some years back remarks that ' it
l.became almost impossible, in legislating for the
I protection of the country, to distinguish between
f the papal religion and papal politics,' and the rela-
Ition of Jesuit and other Fathers in China to the
►government of France does seem to be of a much
Iclcser nature than the relation of any Protestant

l62

CHINA FROM WITHIN

missionary to the government of his native land.
Yet it is almost impossible, in the present stage of
Chinese official knowledge, to distinguish between
the Roman and Protestant systems, although the
agents of the latter are certainly, as a class, innocent
of any political propaganda whatever.

"And now for the burning question of the day,
and of many a day to come : What share has the
Protestant missionary (if we must regard him
separately) — what share has he had in the long
series of riots and this last great flare-up of 1900 ?

" First of all, inquiring reader, is your mind fully
satisfied that official incitement has been a potent
factor all along, and that the Empress Dowager did
assuredly hold the high office of Supreme Boxer in
1900? If not, the only prescription for you is a
month's hard reading-up, starting (say) with an
article in The Times, 24th August, 1895. But
should the evidence be found to be overwhelming
on that point, we are at liberty to proceed with a
quotation or two.

"An Ex-Deputy Commissioner of the Imperial
Maritime Customs, R. M. Hobson, says, ' The
average Chinese is not religious, and it is this
absence of conviction that makes him the most
tolerant man upon earth. But, though not re-
ligious, he is superstitious, and credulous of what
his superiors tell him. His superiors are the
literati (and mandarins are but literati in office),
a class of scholars than whom no more bitterly

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING i6;i

conservative people can be found anywhere. The
popular hatred is not for the Christian teacher as
such, but for the foreign devil in general, and for
the immoral monster that scheming scholars have
painted the missionary in particular.'

" With this the British Press of Shanghai will be
found to agree, at any rate as far as three out of
the four papers are concerned ; the remaining
paper agreeing in the main.

" Perhaps the fairest possible estimate of the
whole situation has been made by Dr. Gracey, of
New York, who says, 'The impact of the European
civilizations on what we may for convenience call
the Mongolian cannot be stopped. It is as certain
to continue as gravitation. The friction will vary
in acuteness, but the present generation, and the
next, will not see the end of it. . . . It is well
to put this down, not as a prediction, but as a re-
cognised and necessary condition.

" ' It is useless to blame missionaries for being
agitators. They are part of the civilization. It is
useless to plead, on the other hand, the popularity
of the missionaries with the people, their inoffen-
siveness, their benevolence, their contribution to
justice and humanitarianism, their elevation of the
intelligence of the land. They are distinctly re-
volutionists.

" ' But it is little use for anybody to think to
secure pacification by the withdrawal of mission-
aries. A steam-engine and a telegraph-pole are

164

CHINA FROM WITHIN

revolutionary ; so is a newspaper. . . . They
are only different parts of the same civilizing force.
The anti-footbinding society, which the missionary
fosters in China, is a part of the social revolution
implied in a new civilization ; so is his hospital.

"'The people of the secondary civilization are
astute enough to discern that the missionary is a
component part of the new economy. His family
life, his very presence is revolutionary, and he can-
not dissociate himself from the clash of the two
civilizations.' "

Yet this presence, though "revolutionary " in the
sense mentioned above, is by no means resented
by enlightened officials ; on the contrary it is
appreciated, and the work of missionaries eulogized.
In illustration of this we append a proclamation
issued by the prefect of Nanking in 1895 : —

" Now having examined the doctrine halls in
every place pertaining to the prefecture, we find
that there have been established free schools where
the poor children of China may receive instruction;
hospitals where Chinese may freely receive healing;
that the missionaries are all really good : not only
do they not take the people's possessions, but they
do not seem to desire men's praise. Although the
Chinese are pleased to do good, there are none
who equal the missionaries."

The only spot we can lay our finger on, which
can directly cause friction between the Protestant
missionaries and the officials, is the non-payment

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 165

of temple taxes by converts, There is no doubt
that the "ill-feeling between the converts and the
people," referred to often in edicts, has a cause
here. Yet here again we must be careful to get
to the root of the matter. The lawful calling
and position of both missionaries and converts,
with the citizen rights of the latter, have been
proclaimed by successive Imperial edicts, and
are founded upon treaty obligation. By treaty,
China tolerates Christianity, and absolves native
Christians from the imposition of the idolatrous
temple tax. These two, necessarily, stand or fall
together. Proclamations are annually put out about
the temple tax. What is really needed } It is the
old, old story, China needs to sincerely enter into
the spirit of her treaty obligations. In many parts
of China, the matter of the temple tax causes no
trouble. It causes trouble more especially in
pioneer work — where Christianity is a novelty.
Yet even in such work you only need to have a
level-headed official, free from any particular anti-
foreign bias, and practically no difficulty is ex-
perienced. However, it is particularly worthy of
note that in the anti-missionary edict of July 2nd,
1900, issued by Prince Tuan and his coterie, in
speaking of the " ill-feeling between the people and
the converts," it says distinctly, " All this is due
to faulty administration on ike part of the local
authorities" (see p. 45). If the officials would only
carry out in the spirit of fairness their own procla-

i66

CHINA FROM WITHIN

motions, then even in the matter of the non-pay-
ment of the temple tax there should be no real
cause for friction between the missionaries and
them. The temple taxes, of course, have nothing
to do with the revenue of the country. They are
not government taxes. Nor is the money thus
raised used in any way for the public good, such as
making of roads, etc. ; the money is, in theory,
supposed to be spent in giving theatricals in honour
of local deities, in reality it largely goes into the
pockets of the headmen of villages. The non-
payment of these taxes to the headmen by the
converts is a fruitful source of petty, and sometimes
serious persecution, which occasionally has to be
brought to the law-courts for settlement, Pro-
testant missionaries exhort their converts to endure;
but if their converts are very badly brow-beaten,
sometimes they make a friendly representation to
the mandarin. It all depends on what sort of man
he is. If a sensible man, the matter is easily
settled. If an anti-foreign bigot, as some of the
Manchus are, it is likely that the convert will not
only have his rights ignored, but himself. Christians,
and missionaries, openly lampooned and insulted in
the public court. Officials such as these recognise
no such thing as treaties. Where lies the fault in
such cases ?

An extract from a prescient article in the North
China Herald oi ]i}\y nth and 25th, 1900, written
before the Boxer movement had reached to Peking,

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 167

may be here fittingly introduced, though some of it
goes over old ground. The writer, in speaking of
" the educated youth of modern China," says : —

" Light had dawned, and men began to see as
they had never seen before. Many of the younger
men had travelled. They had studied Empires
whose existence had previously been as misty as
the existence of the Yellow Emperor. America,
Germany, France, Great Britain, and even Japan
afforded a series of panoramic object lessons, of
what foreign nations were, and of what they were
doing, were thinking, were enjoying. In fact, young
China " saw visions," and consequently began to
"dream dreams." Young men returned from their
travels, full of discontent with, and even contempt
for, their own effete, blundering, lumbering Govern-
ment, and determined to attempt radical reforms so
as to bring China in line with the march of nations
and the advance of ideas. Moreover, many books
have been translated into Chinese during the last
decade. These made it possible for readers who re-
mained at home to look out upon the world as
through field-glasses, and see more clearly than
they had ever seen before the distinct personali-
ties of foreign nations, the types of government by
which they were ruled, the different religions which
guided their moral conduct and inspired their pure
and lofty Hves, the systems of education that
moulded their thought and prepared their minds
for the battle of life, and the general happiness.

i68

CHINA FROM WITHIN

comfort and luxury that most of these foreign
nations could command. Further, the new litera-
ture did not shrink from presenting to the minds
of native scholars the moribund state of China, the
poverty and ignorance of her people, the wooden
education by which their minds had been cramped,
the infinite brutality of her punishments, the rickety
and lumbering movement of her Government, and
the retrogade character of her mandarins.

" The more intelligent minds in Peking saw that
a change must be effected. The Emperor flung
himself into the current of new ideas, and the great
and laudable attempt at Reform went well for a
time.

" Presently the Conservative party arose as one
man, and in sullen anger and dark forebodings
quenched it in tears and blood. The coup d'itat
of the Empress and her party effected this. The
martyrs of this abortive revolution were not many
but illustrious."

He then goes on to speak of the Government-
Boxer movement, first supposing it to be directed
against missionaries only : —

" But, supposing it to be directed against mis-
sionaries only, then it is impossible that F'oreign
Powers shall not crush it out and destroy it root
and branch. There may be a few Europeans who
would gladly see the entire band of missionaries
shipped out of China and sent home to their re-
spective centres, but this will never be. English,

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 169

American, German and French missionaries are in
China. The duty of exertion on behalf of the suc-
cess of the mission movement is as deep-rooted in
the conviction of the Christian world as is the con-
viction of the merchant that it is necessary to trade.

" Those who have read the reports of the great
Conference on Missions, recently held in New
York, in which thousands of missionaries and
other delegates gathered from all parts of the
world, and calmly discussed missionary problems
and planned missionary enterprise, must see that
the energy behind that meeting is a force that no
earthly hand can hold in check. Ex-President Har-
rison, in his speech, said : ' I have taken part in
the course of my long life in many political cam-
paigns ; I have often addressed political meetings
in the hall (Carnegie Hall, which seats three thou-
sand), but never have I known any political cam-
paign, never have I known any cause whatever, but
this cause of Foreign Missions, which could fill this
hall twice or thrice a day for ten days with such
enthusiastic audiences.' No. if it rests between the
presence of Foreign Missions in China and the
existence of the Bo.xers, then the Boxers must
go, because the force that moves forward and ani-
mates the cause of Foreign Missions is ten times
more powerful than the energy which has called
this rebellious crowd into being.

" But suppose this savage crowd is directed not
i only against missions and missionaries, but also

I70 CHINA FROM WITHIN

against modem progress and civilization, and all
that these stand for, the appeal for its suppression
is, if possible, yet more loud and imperative. Mer-
chants are in China to stay ; so are engineers and
railway builders, and diplomats and travellers. No
power on earth can stop them from coming, or ex-
pel them before they elect to depart Their being
here is a part and parcel of the widening of modem
commercial and international life.

" But suppose the hatred of the Boxer is di-
rected against the Reform movement ; suppose
the Boxers have convinced themselves that the
Reform movement spells the ruin of China ; sup-
pose they have attacked Europeans because they
believe that the latter are responsible, either directly
or indirectly, for this Reform ; suppose they believe
that were Europeans killed or driven out of China,
the Reform movement would die and this country
be saved, what then ? The same course must enter
China, and nothing can stop it. As well might a
dead tree out-grow a living one and its right to live,
as that the effete system of government and mori-
bund religion of China shall hold their place against
the purer forms of government, and more spiritual
types of religion, now pressing in upon them."

We conclude this chapter by borrowing the
language of another, used concerning a different
entity ' (the identity of which is not hard to dis-
cover).

' Mackenzie, Nineteenth Century, pp. 439, 448.

THE CAUSES OF THE UPRISING 171

China, in this late conflict, "has announced irre-
concilable hostility to the spirit and impulses which
are the peculiar glory of the age. She has placed
the stamp of her preference upon the imperfect de-
velopment of an earlier time. She has condemned
Heaven's great law of progress — of advancement
from a lower level of cultivation and well-being to a.
higher — and sought to lay enduring arrest upon its
operation. She has broken with the 19th Cen-
tury, and declared her antagonism to all its maxims,
its aims and its achievements. She has entered on
a mortal contest with forces which are universal, in-
eradicable, irresistible. She has undertaken to arrest
and turn back the mightiest power upon the earth.
She has announced resistance to the laws of Provi-
dence — silent, patient, but undeviating. Nothing
less than shameful defeat can result from such an
enterprise. If China is unable to reconcile herself
to Christian civilization, her decline and fall are in-
evitable."

Chapter XII
RELIGION IN CHINA

DR. BENJAMIN KIDD, in his interestii^
and suggestive book, Social Evolution,^
imagines a denizen of another world paying a visit
to this planet, for the object of inquiring into our
social organizations. After noticing the outward
features — streets, crowds, buildings, means of com-
munication, etc., he inquires into matters of com-
merce, government, and various social and political
problems. His instructor, however, fails to give
him information on one "most obvious feature" of
our life : " That at every turn in our cities, there
are great buildings — churches, temples, cathedrals —
and that wherever men dwelt, some such buildings
were erected." Dr. Kidd supposes his instructor
to be a spokesman for science, and as such, pos-
sessed of a judicial mind, he would be prepared to
weigh and note all phenomena, spiritual phenomena
included. To his surprise, he finds his instructor
regarded the whole subject of religion "with some
degree of contempt, and even of bitterness " ; and,
to quote Dr. Kidd in another passage,* the visitant

' Pages 89-91.

r passage,'
' Page 23.

RELIGION IN CHINA

173

must have found it "hard to follow" this scientist
" in his theories of the development of religious
beliefs from ghosts and ancestor worship " (not to
speak of religion being a species of nervous disease
■ — neurosis!) "without a continual feeling of dis-
appointment, and even of impatience, at the triviality
and comparative insignificance of the explanations
offered to account for the development of such an
imposing class of social phenomena."

Dr. Kidd, after some striking remarks on the
conflict between reason and religion, shows in
Chapter V. "the functions of religion."

He points out that science belongs to the domain
of the intellect, religion to that of the heart ; that
mankind may be looked at from two main points of
view — that of the individual, and collectively as a
social organism. The interests of these two entities
are necessarily antagonistic, the one being private
and selfish, the other public and for the general

Religion comes in to secure the subordination of
the interest of the individual units to the larger
interests of the social organism.

But in order to effect this, religion must be
clothed with adequate sanctions of reward and
punishment. These sanctions must in the nature of
the case be super-natural and ultra- rational. Reason,
pure and simple, would never lead individual units
to give up their self-assertiveness. The sphere,
therefore, of religion is not the reason of man. A

176

CHINA FROM WITHIN

that land in a sympathetic manner, would thus
address them : " In speaking to you of the Living
and True God, we are not telling you of some
Being which China has never known ; we are
rather telling you of One whom your ancestors, the
founders of your nation knew and worshipped, but
Whom their descendants have departed from."

With such a reverence for "antiquity," as is
fostered by the Chinese classics, it will be easily
seen that such a way of approaching the scholars of
China is at once conciliatory and advantageous.

The question is, however, whether such a state-
ment of the case may not be misleading.

This must, of course, mainly be settled by refer-
ence to the Chinese classics. And as these mis-
sionaries give the foundation of their views from
these sources, they may be easily examined.

We will select two scholars of the first degree of
eminence — Dr. Legge, translator of the Chinese
classics, and Dr. Ernst Faber, the author of Western
Civilization (in Chinese). We will first mention,
by way of explanation, that the terms " Ti " (" ruler "
or "god"), " Shang-Ti " {" supreme ruler" or
"supreme god"), and "T'ien" ("heaven") (in the
passages where something deeper than the visible
sky is meant) are used interchangeably in the classics.

Let us first hear Dr. Faber.

In his Systematical Digest of the Doctrines of
Confucius, he thus sums up his opinion as to the
meaning of T'ien (" Heaven ") : —

RELIGION IK CHINA

177

' " We may perhaps gatlier from this that the
Chinese mind is unable to comprehend a personi-
fication, other than the human, and that Heaven, in
spite of all theistic contacts, is still far removed
from the Christian God."

And again ; " The expression T'ien (Heaven)
would then be totally inadmissible as a designation
of the Christian God."

In the next chapter^ he discusses the term
Shang-Ti ("supreme ruler," or "supreme god"),
which Dr. Faber holds to be the equivalent of (the
Christian) God, This, however, is to be particu-
larly observed. He bases his opinion on one pas-
sage in the classics, which is the only passage where
Confucius himself uses these characters — " Shang-
Ti." It runs : " By the ceremonies of the sacrifices
to Heaven and Earth they served Shang-Ti." Dr.
Faber adds : " A nearer determination of the nature
of God, Shang-Ti, is, according to the sources before
us, not possible."

Dr. Legge argues precisely in the same way.'
In speaking of the worship of Heaven and Earth,
Dr. Legge says: "There* was a danger of its
leading to serious misconception concerning the
oldest religious ideas and worship of the nation — a
danger which Confucius himself happily came in to

» Page 48. » Page 49.

' Dr. Legge, however, holds that "Heaven" certainly means
the true God, which Dr. Faber denies.
' The Jieligions of China, p. 31.

178

CHINA FROM WITHIN

avert. We have from him the express statement
that "the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaveal
and Earth are those by which we serve Shang-Ti."
"The worship offered in them was to the one ana
same God."

Professor Max Milller quotes Dr. Legge's send-'
ments, here given, with approval in the articleJ
mentioned above.

The worship of " Heaven and Earth " is a
lutely universal in China. The grandest instance
of the worship is that performed by the Emperor.
At the winter solstice he worships at the round
altar of Heaven, and at the summer solstice he
worships at the square altar of Earth, earth being
square according to Chinese orthodoxy. ^_

In either case the visible object of worship is an ^M
upright tablet of wood. On Heaven's altar tablet
are the characters : —

"Hwang T'ien Shang-Ti chi wei " {"Imperial
Heaven Shang-Ti's throne ").

On Earth's altar tablet are the characters : —

" Hou T'u Ti-Ch'i chi wei" ("SovereignJ
Ground Earth — Deity's throne ").

Now Shang-Ti may be accurately called the'
personal name of the Spirit of Heaven ; and Houl
T'u \he personal name of the Spirit of Earth.

In a passage about Shang-Ti in the Book
Rites, it refers to him as "the Spirit of Heaven"
(Book ix., Sect. ii. 7) ; and in a passage about Hou]
T'u, also in the Book of Rites (xx. 9) it refers tol

RELIGION IN CHINA

179

him (?her) as "the Spirit of the ground," or earth.
Compare (ix., Sect i. 21) " In the sacrifice at the
sh& altar, they dealt with the earth as if it were a
spirit" — the "sM" altar is the altar to Earth.

Summing up the argument so far, we note that
two of the best Christian Chinese scholars assert
that the Shang-Ti of the Chinese classics is the true
God ; and, moreover, they base that assertion upon
one saying of Confucius, to wit : —

" By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven
and Earth they served Shang-Ti."

That the view of these gentlemen is strongly
opposed by other Christian scholars will not, per-
haps, weigh much. We present, what seems to us,
a far more weighty consideration, viz. : the opinion
of the best native scholars.

I. Two of China's greatest commentators, one of
whom is Chu Hsi, "the prince of literature," en-
tirely dissent from the views of Dr. Leggc and Dr.
Faber concerning the important passage quoted
above : " By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to
Heaven and Earth they served Shang-Ti." They
both say, " Hou T'u (that is, the Spirit of Earth) is
not mentioned for sake of brevity." According to
them the passage should read : —

" By the ceremonies of the sacrifices to Heaven
and Earth they served Shang-Ti and Hou T'u."

According, then, to the best Chinese scholars, this
celebrated passage does not support monotheism.
But note further : —

i8o

CHINA FROM WITHIN

2. The persons who are referred to by "they,"
are King Wu and the Duke of Chou. And if we
hunt up the Book of History, to find whom they did \
worship, we find the following sentences by King
Wu himself: —

" Heaven and earth are the father and mother of j
all creatures ; and of all creatures, man is the most
highly endowed."

Lower down, King Wu speaks of the tyrannies
of Shou (b.c. 1154). This tyrant was the last .
ruler of the Hsia dynasty, and was overthrown by 1
King Wu, the founder of the Shang dynasty.

The following is the language King Wu uses of
him : —

" He sits squatting on his heels, not serving |
God (Shang-Ti), nor the Spirits of Heaven and J
Earth."

The above is Legge's translation.

Legge, however, is obliged to add in his notes ;

The Daily Explanation {i.e. a Commentary by a '
Chinese scholar) translates : " he slights and con-
temns the Spirits of Heaven and Earth, and renders
not service to them." Then Legge adds : " This
would confound God with the Spirits of Heaven and
Earth, which is by no means inconceivable in IVu,
when we consider the language of page 3 " ; that is, the
language of Wu quoted above : " Heaven and Earth
are the father and mother of all creatures."

Then lastly, King Wu says, " I have received
charge from my deceased father, Wen ; I have

RELIGION IN CHINA i8i

offered special sacrifice to Shang-Ti ; I have per-
formed the due services to the Great Earth"

On the words " Great Earth," Legge, in his note,
says the words mean "the altar dedicated to the
great Spirit of tlie Earth." [The italics are ours.]

About King Wen, the father of King Wu,
Legge has this note on Wu's saying that " Heaven
and Earth are the father and mother of all creatures":
" There can be no doubt that the deification of
Heaven and Earth, which appears in the text, took
its rise from the Book of Changes, of which King
Wen may be properly regarded as the author."

Dr. Legge maintains that " the deification of
Heaven and Earth took its rise in the time of King
Wen," who lived in the 13th century B.c, Still
it is important to note that Heaven and Earth
were worshipped before that time. In the announce-
ment of T'ang (b.c. 1766) King T'ang says : " You
protested with one accord your innocence to the
Spirits of Heaven and Earth." And his grandson
and successor, T'ai Chia, speaks thus of his grand-
father : " The former king maintained the worship
of the Spirits of Heaven and Earth."

This in the i8th century B.C. is a case of dual

worship, and where do we get pure monotheism ?

Even if we take the very first passage where

L " Shang-Ti " occurs in the classics, we read oi

Shun (2255 B.C.) : " He sacrificed specially to

I Shang - Ti, sacrificed reverently to the Six

I Honoured Ones, offered appropriate sacrifices to the

182 CHINA FROM WITHIN

hills and rivers ; and extended his worship to the
host of spirits."

On this Legge adds the note : " I cannot doubt
but ' Shang-Ti ' is here the name of the true God ;
but the truth concerning Him and His worship had
been perverted evert in this early time, as appears
from the other clauses in the paragraph."

It is important also to remember that the religion
of the Bible is not "pure monotheism," but jeho-
vahism, which is a different conception. A Deism
which includes plurality of persons in the Godhead
is the doctrine of Scripture from Genesis i. to
Revelation xxii.

And then to bring to a climax Dr. Legge's argu-
ment that the Chinese have always known and
worshipped the true God, at any rate the Emperor
of China has, " who worships God as the people's
representative," we get' prayers offered to Shang-
Ti in the year a.i). 153S — the i6th century of our
Christian era !

We might surely have had something a little
earlier. The prayers given are on pages 43''5I<'i^h
They contain a lot of borrowed Christian though6fl(
After giving the prayers, Dr. Legge adds ; —

" I will not multiply words to try and increase

the impression which these prayers must have made

upon your minds. The original monotheism of

the Chinese remains in the state worship of to-day.

• Religions of China, pp. 43, 95.

RELIGION IN CHINA 183

. . . All semblances of an uncertain polytheism
were swept away from the Imperial worship soon
after the middle of our fourteenth century, immedi-
ately on the rise of the Ming dynasty, whose
statutes have supplied us with a series of such
remarkable prayers. We may deplore, as we do
deplore, the superstitious worship of a multitude of
spirits, terrestrial and celestial, that finds a place in
them ; btii this abuse does not obscure the mono-

Then referring to the same prayers in another
place,' Dr. Legge says ; " You remember the
prayers, at the great solstitial service of the Ming
dynasty — how it was said in them that all the
numerous tribes of living beings are indebted to
God for their beginning; that it is He alone, the
Lord, who is the true parent of all things, that he
made heaven and earth and men. Most of us were
acquainted, I suppose, at one time, with what is
called T/i£ First Catechism, by Dr. Watts.

" The first question in it is ' Can you tell me,
child, who made you ?' A Chinese ^^A, familiar
tvith those prayers, would be likely to answer in the
very words of Dr. Watts : * The great God who
made heaven and earth.' "

To sum the whole argument up, it seems to rest
on these two dogmas : —

:. An interpretation of a certain saying of Con-

' Page 95.

184

CHINA FROM WITHIN

fucius, which the two best Chinese commentators
have never thought of.

2. That certain prayers offered in 1538 a.d. con-
tain unadulterated Chinese thought Though it is
well known that the Chinese Court (who are not
above being plagiarists !) have been familiar with
Christianity in its Nestorian form since a.d. 643,
and in its Roman Catholic form since a.d. 1288!
No doubt the reader will not be surprised to hear
that we have seen the writing of a young Chinese
scholar, saying : " Dr. Legge understood our
classics better than we Chinese scholars do ! " And
when we remember Hu, a recent Governor of
Shan-si, maintained that all the roots of Western
learning were to be found in the Book of Changes,
we can conceive it possible that if Confucius were
to meet the good and learned translator of the
Chinese classics he would hide from Dr. Legge his
indebtedness to him ; that whereas he said of him-
self, "I am a transmitter and not an originator^'
he had (by the Doctor's process of reading Christian
thought into words where it did not at first exist)
become such an original thinker, as to propound the
doctrine, that " by the sacrifices to Heaven and
Earth (which Christians would call idolatry), certain
ancient kings served ^^wovskv God" — for such Dr,
Legge distinctly stated to be the meaning of
" Shang-Ti."

The spirit of generosity and fair play, which is
so happily characteristic of the British nation, may

RELIGION IN CHINA

185

be carried (at any rate, the former virtue) too far.
This has been illustrated in the South African war,
where loyal people have sometimes been treated
worse than the disloyal. It is so too in matters of
religion. The heathen systems of religion, from
being spoken of by Christians in no other strain
than that of contempt and ridicule, have, very
much through the study of " comparative religion,"
been raised to such a pinnacle, that some ministers
are barely satisfied with a sermon unless it contains
a quotation from Confucius, Buddha, or Zoroaster.

That there are many passages in the classics that
speak of "Heaven" and " Shang-Ti " as Provi-
dence, and use language about these terms which
involves ideas of personality and will, is undoubtedly
true; it is equally true, too, of " Earth."

We would not deny that the sovereigns of China,

prior to the thirteenth century (? eighteenth century)

K.c, held " Shang-Ti " in some kind of supreme

reverence, and that, in a relative sense, they " knew

God." The Scripture says of the Gentiles that "^«ozy-

ZT^God they glorified Him not as God" (Rom. i. 21);

on the other hand, we read of " the Gentiles which

know not God " ( i Thess. iv. 6). It seems plain from

this that the "knowledge" of the heathen nations

of God was necessarily faulty and relative. It

I consisted of such an approximation of the know-

■ ledge of the true God, as could be gained from

: the ideas expressed by the highest objects of

' worship in their various pantheons. With the

i86

CHINA FROM WITHIN

Greeks, it was Zeus; with the Hindoos, Brahma ;
with the Romans, Jupiter ; with the Chinese,
Heaven, Shang-Ti, or later " Heaven and Earth" ;
for we would draw particular attention to Dr.
Legge's admission that " no doubt Heaven and
Earth were deified in China in the thirteenth cen-
tury E.C."

The Roman Catholic Church, in China, has
absolutely rejected the terms " Heaven " and
" Shang-Ti " as predicating God,

Where we fear misconception will arise, is that
Chinese scholars and readers of the Sacred Books
of the East will be led to believe that the Shang-Ti
of the Chinese classics is absolutely identical with
Jehovah God — the Self-existent One ; and not
understand that the identity is only relative, and
the language approximate.

To come to present-day China, we would not
hesitate to quote some of the classical sayings about
"Heaven" and "Shang-Ti" to the scholars, and
in speaking to yokels employ the common term
" Grandfather Heaven " — albeit there is the inevi-
table " Grandmother Earth "■ — as approximate terms,
or at any rate the best native terms, for " God " to
the heathen Chinese ; in point of fact, any term
needs explanation.

We should consider it equivalent to the action of
St. Paul on Mars Hill. When he told the Athenians
" As certain of your own poets have said, ' For we

are also his offspring ' " (Acts >

, he was

using

RELIGION IN CHINA

187

words which were said by a heathen poet of Zeus
(or Jupiter) — the head of the Greek {or Roman)
pantheon. Under such circumstances quotations
may be legitimate and productive of good. But
Paul would certainly not have been prepared, after
being instrumental in healing the cripple at Lystra,
when " the priest of Jupiter brought oxen and gar-
lands, and would have done sacrifice to them," to
have used such language then. Most definite lan-
guage was needed to remove misapprehension, and
he used it. " We bring you good tidings, that ye
should turn from these vain things unto the living
God, who made the heaven, and the earth, and the
sea, and all that in them is " (Acts xiv. 13, 14). Itis
one thing to quote passages about " Heaven " to
the Chinese, and quite another thing to do as Dr.
Legge did, to go to the Temple of Heaven in Pe-
king and there " sing the Doxology in honour of the
True God who had been worshipped by the Em-
perors of China for four millenniums " ! He did it
no doubt out of the fulness of his generous heart,
but we fancy in doing so his feelings ran away with
his judgment.

The God we read of in Genesis i. i, who is both
antecedent to, and independent of, heaven and earth,
will, we believe, not be found in the classics. The
Chinese conceptions are, we believe, fundamentally
lacking. A Church member of ours overheard some
Chinese discussing the religions of Christianity and
Confucianism. A well-read man made the follow-

188 CHINA FROM WITHIN

ing extraordinary remark : "Christianity and Con-
fucianism are exactly the same, they only differ in
that which is radical and fundamental"! (Ye-su
chiao ho Ru chiao shi i yang-yang-tih, chi shii ken
pen puh t'ung.) Logic which was " a//ra-rational,"
to say the least of it !

To our mind the matter may be compared to the
two astronomical theories of Ptolemy and Coper-
nicus : the one fundamentally defective, the other
equally right. In both systems the heavens are
the heavens ; the conceptions, however, are radi-
cally different. Now a man who believes that the
earth is the centre of all things and the hub of the
universe, may yet be able to distinguish between
stars and planets, note down eclipses, map out the
heavens, give stars their names, and so on. Yet
who would think of holding on to the Ptolemaic
system, when the Copernican is made known ? So
it is with the various systems of religion. Religions
there are many, one only possesses valid claims to
the title of revelation. Of the " first and greatest
commandment," which the Founder of Christianity-
imposes upon His followers, Confucianism has not
so much as the conception ; for, to quote Dr. Faber,
" Confucianism recognises no relation to a living
God."

And though it is readily admitted, that, in the
doctrines of Confucius concerning the relation of
man to man, there is much in the language which is
excellent, yet, in Confucianism, the "human rela-

RELIGION IN CHINA 189

tions " have not their basis in the Divine relation of
man to God ; there is no help of the Holy Spirit
promised to enable us to live up to what we know
we should be ; that which is life-giving and ** funda-
mental " is lacking ; it is, after all, but the Ptole-
maist, noting down eclipses, and giving the stars
their names.

WE believe that the most spiritual writers in
the various sections of the Christian
Church would agree that the object of Christi-
anity is the restoration in man of the Divine
Image, that its essence consists in perfect disin-
terested love — that is, loving God for what He is,
and loving man as man — and that this state of heart
follows upon forgiveness through the atoning blood
of Christ, and is brought about and maintained by
the indwelling and perpetual inspiration of the Spirit
of Christ.

True religion, then, is love. It is benevolence.
Begotten of the Spirit of God, it resides in the
spirit, the heart, the will, the choices and the pre-
ferences of man. It consists in choosing the good
and happiness of all sentient being. It proposes
this most valuable end as the object of its aim.
This end, too, must be sought, without having in
view any ulterior benefit that may accrue to self in
pursuing it, but disinterestedly. It demands that
each should value the interests of all according to
their perceived relative importance in the scale of

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 191

being. In the language of the law and the pro-
phets, sanctioned by the authority and approval of
the Saviour of the world, it consists in loving God
supremely and our neighbour as ourselves. This is
absolute religion, this is true religion. All religions,
other than this, are relative, and therefore compara-
tively wrong, defective, and false. This is the
religion which has produced the saintliest lives on
earth, and is at the back of those marvellous bene-
volent activities, which exist on a scale in Christian
countries incontestably greater than in those coun-
tries where Christianity is unknown, even in those
countries where "benevolence" or "love" is within
the circle of their doctrines, for their love Is a differ-
ent conception from Christian love. It has a
different basis, a different scope, a different consum-
mation.

In a touching passage in the life of the late Pro-
fessor Huxley by his son, we have the following
words, which throw light on the inner life of that
remarkable man. We quote from memory, but the
passage is to this effect. He says : " Love showed
me the sanctity of life, and I saw that true religion
might exist without theology." But if true religion
consists in benevolence, and therefore actively will-
ing the good of all being, we must hold that religion
to be sadly defective which leaves out of count the
great and glorious intelligent First Cause, who is
Himself the Author and Preserver of being. Who
would call that a good system of politics which,

192

CHINA FROM WITHIN

while admitting the obligation that good citizens
were under to will the good of their fellow-citizens,
ignored the truth that they were under supreme
obligation (supreme, because of his relative import-
ance in the scale of being) to extend that goodwill '
to the Chief of State?

Dr. Arthur Smith has, in his Chinese Charac-
teristics, a most excellent chapter on " Pantheism,
Polytheism and Atheism." We advise every ■
reader who can do so to purchase that book, and
"read, mark, learn and inwardly digest" the con-
tents of that chapter. We do not think the out-
come of the process will be, after reading it, that
any will advise missionaries to give up their work
in China, because "China has a very good religion
of its own."

This is a sentiment that may be adopted by some
who read the Sacred Books of the East, and,
having read vols, iii., xvi., xxvli. and xxviii. of
that series, imagine that present-day China corre-
sponds to them, as face answers to face in the
looking-glass.

The present-day state of religion in China is sad
in the extreme. As worshippers of Heaven, earth,
sun, moon, stars, thunder, rain, wind, mountains,
hills, rivers and trees, they are plainly Pantheists,
confounding God with Nature.

As worshippers of deceased Chinese who have
been deified, and worshippers of ancestors, they
are Polytheists. All the "gods" which the Chi-

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 193

nese worship are simply Chinese who have passed
from this earth. There are "gods" in China
which minister directly to vice ; the gambler, the
harlot, the thief have their " deities " — patrons of
their modes of life — by the worship of which these
evil-doers expect to increase their profits.

But, speaking generally, the "gods" are men
who in the past have been famous as heroes,
statesmen, philanthropists, or women celebrated
for domestic virtue. Missionaries are blamed
sometimes for attacking the worship of "gods"
and ancestors. Like most calumnies, there is
truth in the statement, and falsehood too. The
word " worship " has, as we all know, gradations
of meaning. No missionary would dream of at-
tacking the worship of " gods " and ancestors in
the sense of reverencing them, that is, holding in
their reverent memory the departed ones who are
worthy of it. We do point out, however, that they
should not be "worshipped" in the sense Qioffering
sacrifice to them, for this involves the ideas that the
living are dependent on the dead, and the dead on
the living, which are false sentiments — sentiments
which open the door to priestcraft, and which are
above all things hurtful to the progress and real
good of the people.

And then, again, the scholars of China are, in
our sense of the word, Atheists. How they have
become so is as follows : —

We have pointed out in the previous chapter that

'94

CHINA FROM WITHIN

" Heaven " is often used in the classics with the
ideas of personality and will attached to it

For instance, there are such sayings as these : —

"Should I deceive Heaven?"

" He who offends Heaven has no one to whom
he can pray,"

" There is Heaven " (said Confucius) ; "it knows
me." Again he says, " Heaven begot the virtue
that is in me."

And a disciple says, " Heaven is going to use the
Master as an alarm bell to awaken the age," etc.,
etc.

In the twelfth century of the Christian era there
arose a certain school of philosophers in China, the
most eminent among whom was Chu-hsi. He
composed a commentary on the classics. It was
adopted by the Government of the day, and has
down to the present time been held to be the
orthodox exposition of the Sacred Books of the
Chinese. The scholars of China have not only
to commit the text of the classics to memory, but
also Chu-hsi's commentary, the natural consequence
being that he has been the moulder of thought of
the Chinese literati for generations, and his influ-
ence is paramount. He was a thorough - going
materialistic Atheist. In his commentary on the
word Heaven he says, " Heaven is principle,"
which all will see is an Atheistic exposition of
the word, for we can attach no ideas of either
personality or will to it. And by this commen-

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 195

tary he has led the scholars of China into sheer
Atheism, the outcome being deterioration of con-
science and consequent national decline.

We cannot here forbear from making a note on
this notorious saying of Chu-hsi.

One of England's most celebrated preachers, in
a sermon on " Heaven," refers to this saying. It
is sandwiched between two other definitions of
Heaven : " Heaven means holiness " ; " Heaven
means principle " ; " Heaven means to be one witl\
God." To the central clause he adds the footnote,
" This is one of the finest sayings of Confucius."

The whole sermon is admirable, eloquent and
helpful. It insists on the truth that, if Heaven is
a "place," much more is it a "state" — i.e. of holy
heart and mind. But this footnote is unfortunate.
That "Heaven is principle" is not the saying of
Confucius, but of his degenerate disciple, who lived
some 1,500 years and more after him. Chu-hsi was
using the term " Heaven " in a Chinese sense, the
preacher in a Christian, Instead of being a fine
saying, it has done untold mischief, and is largely
accountable (if not wholly so) for leading the
scholars of China from the comparative light of
an imperfect theism into the darkness and conse-
quent degradation of blank Atheism.

That the Chinese are Pantheists, Polytheists and
Atheists is a fact as well known to missionaries as
it is known to the public that they eat with chop-
sticks. The fact is, as we have said, sad ; more

CHINA FROM WITHIN

sad, however, is the attitude of the people to their
objects of worship.

Dr. Arthur Smith has dealt with this in a mas-
terly way. He says, most truly ; " The relation of
the Chinese to their objects of worship is charac-
terised by insincerity " — his words are to that effect
— and we would add, and by irreverence too. All
who have lived in interior China are familiar with
the facts that the Chinese try to deceiue their
"gods," ^n^ punish their effigies, when sometimes
the "gods " are obstinate in their non-compliance to
the requests of their worshippers. All this involves
"insincerity" and "irreverence" of a high degfree
indeed ! These two evils are far, far-reaching in their
effects, and are utterly subversive of morality — if,
indeed, in China "morality" and "religion" have
any vital connection, which is questionable.

We naturally become assimilated in character
with the objects of our worship. One of the
great ethical values of Christianity is that in the
worship of a Supreme Being, possessed of every
natural and moral perfection, the very contempla-
tion of such an One is necessarily elevating ; and
the deeper the intercourse is carried, the more do
we become imbued with His Spirit and transformed
into His likeness. Let, however, but the least in-,
sincerity or irreverence be introduced, and tl
foundations of religion are destroyed.

If there be but sincerity and reverence, then even
should the objects of worship be imaginative and

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 197

unreal, the harm done is comparatively small. But
what amount of moral harm must accrue, if to ob-
jects of worship that are unreal there be offered
worship which is insincere and irreverent !

And, yet further, the motives that prompt the
Chinese to their worship are, if not selfish, slavish.

The Christian worships God, not primarily that
he may get something by it, or for any moral good
that may come to him reflexly by the act; but disin-
terestedly, because he regards God to be worthy of
his homage and adoration.

But stand in a Chinese temple, and hear the
prayers of the people to their "gods." If you
don't hear language which does not involve the
principle of a " bargain," or betoken abject and
slavish fear, we should be surprised.

In religion, as now practised in China, there is
nothing morally, much less spiritually, uplifting.

Just so sure as the office of education is to " lead
out " and develop the intelligence, so sure also the
function of religion is to sanctify the heart. If the
one is meant to make men clever, the other is meant
to make men^ooa?. China suffers terribly from the
want of real education, and of true religion, but our
remarks here are confined to the latter. Now it is
an historical fact that the motives and sanctions
which Christianity supplies have been productive
of pure hearts and saintly lives on a scale not to
approached by any other religion. The holiness
I produced differs not only in degree but also in kind.

k hou

B tion

198 CHINA FROM WITHIN

We make no apology for Christianity. Wherever
fairly applied, it has "by its fruits" proved its
Divine origin. It is a key which fits all locks,
however intricate the wards thereof. The appal-
ling need of China, revealed to the whole world in
these last few months, has but a single root — the
want of true religion. Christianity is the comple-
ment of that need, and the only complement, but
to meet the need it should be a Christianity which
is both simple and scriptural.

When the Founder of Christianity sent forth
St. Paul on his life work as an apostle to the
Gentiles, He addressed him in these memorable
words : —

"The Gentiles, unto whom ! send thee, to open
their eyes, that they may turn from darkness to
light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that
they may receive remission of sins and an Inherit-
ance among them that are sanctified by faith in
Me" (Acts xxvi. 17, 18),

Here is simplicity! Remission of sins and holi-
ness of heart through faith in and union with
Christ. Oh, what a Gospel for China, and the
bad rulers of China ! Oh, strong simplicity, to
take the place of the complexity of Confucianism,
Buddhism and Taoism promiscuously jumbled into
one!

But should we throw stones who live in glass
houses ? Are not some of our Church organiza-
tions, doctrines, and practices far too complex ?

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 199

What shall we say to these remarks of the Roman
Catholic Cardinal Vaughan ?

" The doctrines of the Catholic Church, which
had been rejected and condemned as being blas-
phemous, superstitious and fond inventions, have
been re-examined and taken back, one by one,
until the Thirty-nine Articles have been banished
and buried as a rule of faith. The real presence,
the sacrifice of the mass, offered for the living and
the dead — sometimes even in Latin — not infrequent
reservation of the sacrament, regular auricular con-
fession, extreme unction, purgatory, prayers for the
dead, devotions to Our Lady, to her immaculate
conception, the use of the rosary and the invoca-
tion of saints, are doctrines taught and accepted,
with a growing desire and relish for them, in the
Church of England. A celibate clergy, the insti-
tution of monks and nuns under vows, retreats for
clergy, missions for the people, fasting and other
penitential exercises — candles, lamps, incense, cruci-
fixes, images of the Blessed Virgin and the saints
held in honour, stations of the cross, cassocks, cot-
tas, Roman collars, birettas, copes, dalmatics, vest-
ments, mitres, croziers, the adoption of an ornate
Catholic ritual, and, now recently, an elaborate dis-
play of the whole ceremonial of the Catholic Ponti-
fical — all this speaks of a change and a movement
towards the Church that would have appeared abso-
lutely incredible at the beginning of this century."

If we would grasp conclusions, we must first trace

CHINA FROM WITHIN

There are two large bodies of Christians
'hich, having adopted different premises, necessarily
arrive at different conclusions.

The premises we refer to are those concerning
tradition.

Our Lord when on earth had 1,500 years of
Jewish Church history behind Him. However, His
oltimate court of appeal {as regards writings) was
always to the Scriptures, and He ever spoke of the
traditions " in language of disparagement, if not of
contempt. One body of Christians feel the same in
regard to Christian Church history, as our Lord
to Jewish. As far as documents are concerned,
their ultimate appeal is to the Scriptures, especially
the New Testament. They are aware that the New
Testament speaks of " tradition " in an honourable
way (i Cor. xi. 2 ; 2 Thess, ii. 15, iii. 6) ; but they
hold that, however tradition may sometimes go be-
yond the letter of Scripture, at any rate it can never
leave its spirit, its scope, or its principles. Christian
tradition that does this, they despise as heartily as
the Master the " traditions " of the Jews.

There is, however, another large body of Chris-
tians who adopt as a premise that " tradition " is of
equal authority with the Scripture.

The Council of Trent, with that genius for and
energy of malediction, which is so characteristic of
Rome's utterances, pronounces those "accursed"
who deny that " tradition " is of equal authority
with Scripture.

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 201

Now, not to make too long a digression, let us
take one subject — that of the sacrificial priesthood.
What does Scripture make of it in the New Testa-
ment ? Dean Farrar points out the following facts
in his book, The Bible and the Ministry. He says :

1. " We find that though the New Testament is
full of accounts of Christian ministers, the name of
' htereus,' or ' sacrificing priest,* is never once applied
to them. Surely this alone should be decisive to
every plain mind.

2. " It would be an absurdity to suppose that the
one name which Romanists and Ritualists apply to
Christian ministers, and regard as so important,
should be exactly the one name which the New
Testament resolutely and deliberately refuses them.

3. " We all know that the New Testament does
apply ten other names to Christian ministers of every
class, and never once even strays into this name of
' hiereis' or 'sacrificing priests.' It calls them
apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, teachers,
ministers, overseers, presbyters, deacons, stewards.

4. " And that the refusal of the name ' sacrificing
priests ' to the Christian presbyters was deliberate
is transparently obvious, from the fact that this name
' kiereus ' was the very one which lay most easily
and obviously at hand. For the ancient world was
full of sacrificing priests, and of sacrificing priests
only. The only priests of the pagan world were
sacrificing priests. The only priests among the
Jews were sacrificing priests.

202

CHINA FROM WITHIN

5. " But even that is not all. As though to prove
decisively that there was a deep reason for not
giving the title ' hiereis' to Christian ministers, the
word is used of Christians as a whole, but not of
ministers. St. Peter, in a secondary and metaphori-
cal sense (i Pet. ii. 5. 9), twice calls all Christians
'a sacrificial priesthood," but to prevent any mistake,
he adds that the only sacrifices they can offer are
'spiritual sacrifices.'"

These " sacrifices " we find to be from Scripture :
i. The presenting of our bodies for God's ser-
vice {Rom. xii. 1).

ii. Almsgiving {Phil. iv. 18).
iii. Praise (Heb. xiii. 15).

iv. Doing good and having Christian fellowship
(Heb. xiii. 16).

But all this simple and Scriptural teaching has
been changed by Rome ; who, not satisfied with
"cursing" those that hold that tradition is not 01
equal authority with Scripture, "makes void" the
latter by the former. Rome holds her " priests " to
be a particular class, a sacerdotal caste ; and when
the Pope, prompted by Cardinal Vaughan, gave out
that "Anglican orders" were null and void, one of
the chief reasons for him saying so, was that " at
the Reformation the English Church took the
ground that her ministers were not sacrificing
priests."

If we reject tradition, and appeal to the New
Testament, we find : —

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 203

1. There is no such office in the Christian minis-
try as "priest."

2. There is no "allar" on earth except the Cross
of Christ (Heb. xiii. 10-12). In the Gospel (John
xiii, 28) we find Christ reclined at a "table," when
He instituted the Lord's supper ; and, in the Epistle
(i Cor. X. 21) we find Christians at "the Lord's
table" in commemorating His death.

3. There is «£) atoning "sacrifice" except that of
Christ, which we are told over and over again was
offered "once," "once for aU"{Heb. vii. 27 ; ix. 26,
28 ; X. 10 ; I Pet. iii. 18). This sacrifice can. never
be repeated. It is not a "mass," but a "supper"
both at its inception (John xiii. 2) and also subse-
quently — "the Lord's supper" (i Cor. xi. 20). On
such impregnable Scripture grounds do those stand
who oppose sacerdotalism.

On the other hand, sacerdotal ists maintain: —

1. The Christian minister {of the second degree)
is a " priest."

2. He has his " altar " in the chancels of churches.

3. He offers on it the propitiatory "sacrifice" of
the mass.

This is simply tradition as opposed to Scripture.

It is important to point out that Cardinal
Vaughan's words are only possibly true as regards
one section of the Church of England, which, for a
better name, we will call the Italian party as op-
posed to the English party. The one asserts, the
other utterly repudiates, sacerdotalism. Still, it is

204

CHINA FROM WITHIN

indeed to be wished that some of the expressions in
the official documents of the said Church were less
ambiguous. Take this one word, " priest." Dean
Farrar has done the cause of truth most splendid
service when, in speaking as an English Christian,
he proves that the Church of England at the time
of the Reformation repudiated sacerdotalism. How-
ever, when he refers to this calamitous word, he
says, " Everybody knows that the word priest
simply means presbyter, and nothing more " ; this
language reminds us of Macaulay, who, in his
Essays, is so fond of the phrase, " Every school-
boy knows." These words are usually connected
with some recondite name or matter of which we
suppose very many, other than " schoolboys," are
wholly ignorant. At the time of the Reformation,
no doubt the leaders of the Protestant party asserted
that "priest" meant "presbyter" ; and the clergy of
the English party in the Church still maintain this.
But does the Dean mean to affirm that "everybody"
— even if we confine the word to Churchmen — that
"everybody knows that 'priest' is 'presbyter'"?
Are all Churchmen aware that the " absolution " is
only to be read by an "elder" and that, after all,
"priest's orders" are nothing more than "^ elders
orders"? We suppose there are multitudes in the
Church of England who no more know that "priest"
and "presbyter" or "elder" are identical terms, than
they know that blue is the same as yellow. And,
what is worse, a word that has to be thus explained

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION

205

by the English party, is a battle-cry of the Italian
party, who use it in the exact sense that both
Scripture and the English party dissent from and
protest against.

Now the only thing that tnalies all this relevant
to the title of the chapter is that the logical outcome
of holding sacerdotal views is to turn Rome-ward.
And Popish Christianity is so inseparably mixed up
with politics, that we affirm that it is impossible for
a Romish "priest" to accept what his Church calls
" Catholic doctrine " and the principles which under-
lie the bulls, encyclical letters, and decrees of in-
fallible Popes without being in heart, if not in
practice, a political agent. He may in the course
of a lifetime, because of various reasons, never
make this apparent, but the mischief we speak of
necessarily resides in the system. We have no
space for long quotations. We might show how
that in the eighteenth century the Emperor Kang-
hsi (a,d. 1662-1723) might have entered the Roman
Church, if it had not been that he objected to the
Pope being "a greater man than himself." Polities
spoilt that business ; but for documentary evidence
we will content ourselves with one extract taken
from the Pope's bull excommunicating Queen
Elizabeth.

The following is a quotation from the extra-
ordinary document which was issued from St.

ter's, Rome, a.d. 1570:

' We do, out of the fulness of our apostolic

206

CHINA FROM WITHIN

power, declare the aforesaid Elizabeth, being
heretic, to have incurred the sentence of anathema,
and to be cut off from the unity of the body of
Christ. And moreover we do declare her to be
deprived of her pretended title to the kingdom
aforesaid (of England), and of all dominion, dignity,
and privilege whatsoever.

" And also the nobility, subjects, and people of
the said kingdom, and all others who have in any
manner sworn to her, to be for ever absolved from
any such oath, and all kind of duty, fidelity and
obedience, as we do deprive the same Elizabeth of
her pretended tide to the kingdom. And we do
command and interdict all and every, the noblemen,
subjects, people, and others aforesaid, tliat they
presutne not to obey Iter, or her monitions, mandates,
and laws ; and those who do the contrary we do
involve in the same sentence of anathema."

That all of us Protestants are under the Papal
curse, sits upon us much lighter than air. We treat
Rome's anathemas not so much with supreme con-
tempt, as with deep pity that the Bishops of Rome
should make such mistakes of judgment, and in
their system present such a parody of primitive
Christianity to the gaze of the world. Rome would
treat Queen Victoria in the same way if she dared,
for she makes it her boast that "she never
changes."

Now we consider this one quotation to be sufficient
to sustain the position we have taken, viz, : that

CHINA'S NEED OF TRUE RELIGION 207

Rome is hopelessly committed to politics of a mis-
chievous and dangerous kind. We are pleading for
real religion in China. A form of Christianity which
is founded largely (if not chiefly) on traditions of
more than a thousand years, is necessarily complex,
and the tendency of that complexity is to grow with
time. On the other hand, a Christianity which is
founded on the New Testament is necessarily simple,
and the more scriptural the more simple. And it is
because " scriptural " and "simple " religion are only
synonyms for " real religion " that we have so
spoken of China's need. "China," Sir Robert Hart
says, needs "Christianity in its best form''

We do not for a moment deny that the Church of
Rome has been fruitful in martyrs, confessors and
saints. That numbers of her "priests" and members
are humble and devoted Christians we freely admit.
The root virtues of Christianity — humility, love,
faith, devotion — are found in Sacerdotalists as well
as in the other party ; we believe their errors to be
those of judgment rather than of heart. Neverthe-
less their system is mischievous at home and abroad ;
and they are saints not because of it, but in spite
of it.

If it were enacted that any Christian minister of
religion who sought to obtain ascendancy over the
Chinese civil power by reason of his " ecclesiastical "
position, should suffer the penalty of deportation
from China — we believe there is not one Protestant
Missionary who would not heartily submit to the

no CHINA FROM WITHIN

stepping-stone to gain ascendancy over their fellow-
Christians, by an imaginary superiority which they
assume to possess owing to some mystical powers
supposed to attach to their ministerial office ; who
will develop the latent talent in the Church by en-
couraging members to take part in prayer and
exhortation — talents often kept latent and never
becoming /d^fw/ at home, because of the limitations
imposed on congregations by the "one man minis-
try," thus leaving Scriptural precedent (i Cor. xiv.
23, 26, 31, T,-^, and in so doing practically making
the officers to do all the fighting, and the rank and
file nothing ; and who thus, throwing themselves into
every form of Christian activity — spiritual, educa-
tional and social — will ever keep well to the fore
the cardinal truths which the Great Head of the
Church entrusted to the Apostle of the Gentiles —
the forgiveness of sins and holiness of heart through
faith in Christ.

■ Chapter XIV

■ LADY MISSIONARIES IN THE INTERIOR
' OF CHINA

SIR THOMAS SUTHERLAND, in a speech
given at the annual dinner of the China As-
sociation, already referred to, made the following
remarks : —

" It might be incumbent upon us, and on the other
nations in Europe, to re-cast, in some measure, the
missionary policy which we had been pursuing in
recent years. He doubted whether it had been a
wise step to allow many hundreds of young un-
married women to go to live in the interior of China."

The sentiment expressed was received with marks
of approval by his audience. The language, at any
rate, had the merit of moderation. No definite
policy is laid down, such, for instance, as that sug-
gested by the Ostasiatische Lloyd ' that " mission-
aries be restricted to spheres within thirty miles
from a treaty port ; female missionaries be restricted
to the treaty ports."

On the other hand, there has been a great deal of
immoderate and even reckless language used. Men
have not hesitated to blame personally the heads of
^ September 15, 1900.

212 CHINA FROM WITHIN

missions in this respect, and hurl at them the cruel
aspersion that they are responsible for the hateful
massacre of lender women and innocent children, as
if they had a monopoly of a virtue which was denied
to missionaries — chivalry.

With most of these critics there is this most ob-
vious fact, which seems to have escaped their notice.
That they use arguments based on an abnormal, not
to say unparalleled, series of events, as if they were
events of common and regular occurrence. Sir
Thomas says so truly that " most of us are even now
oppressed with something like bewildered horror at
the tragic occurrences which have recently taken
place in China."

With the responsible Government of China send-
ing out Imperial decrees to slaughter every foreigner,
engaging her soldiery to bombard the residences of
Ambassadors, residences crowded with women and
children, what society would, under such circum-
stances, advocate the presence of unmarried ladies
in the interior .'' Peking and Tientsin were, by a
chain of miraculous events, saved the horrors of a
general massacre, such as befell the missionaries of
Shan-si, but it is no thanks to their position near the
coast that they were delivered, as we all know. And
the women and children in Peking and Tientsin may
have been said to have been in far greater danger
than women and children in the innermost territories
of China — with the exception of Shan-si.

And why, may we ask, if unmarried ladies are to

LADY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 213

be prohibited from entering the interior, should
married ladies be permitted ? The presence of
married ladies involves the presence of children, and
the presence of children necessitates oftentimes the
presence of the unmarried lady. I f objectors would
urge the prohibition of all ladies and children in the
interior it would at least be logical if not feasible.
But the prohibition of all ladies and children involves
great evils.
L I, It involves enforced celibacy.
H 2. It involves tne non - Christianising of the
'Chinese women, or at any rate having this work
done by celibate men, which is dangerous, objection-
able, not understood by the Chinese, and a constant
source of slander.

3. It involves the non - presentation of a pure
family life, which is of all object lessons one of the
most impressive to the Chinese, and which they can
most easily appreciate.

4. It involves {what will not have the least weight
with some) the ignoring of Scripture commands.

" On My servants and on My handmaidens in
those days, will I pour forth of My Spirit ; and
they shall prophesy" (Acts ii. 18). "The Lord
giveth the word ; the women that publish the tidings
are a great host " (Ps. Ixviii. 1 1).

5. It involves the removal of persons of blameless
life from a sphere where they have done incalculable
good — this should appeal to non-believers in Scrip-
ture,

214 CHINA FROM WITHIN

6. It involves needless interference with a class
who are free agents, and have a perfect right to
choose their own way of laying out their lives to
what they consider the best advantage,

7. It involves the principle that there may be
heroes for Christ, but no heroines, when it is
notorious that all history confirms the fact, that the
women were last at the post of danger at the foot of
the Cross.

8. It involves cruelty to thousands of Chinese
who deeply appreciate their ministrations, and by
whom they are beloved.

9. It involves a backward step in the progress of
the race. For their presence furthers the intercourse
of nations under favourable circumstances.

It is worthy of remark that those who are most
ready to decry the work of unmarried ladies in the
interior of China, seldom or never speak from first-
hand knowledge, having never been eye-witnesses
of the work they condemn.

Having seen work in ten out of the eighteen
provinces of China, and travelled extensively in
seven of them, we venture to bring forward some
facts on this point at issue.

Some nine years ago we went (in company with
another) through the provinces of Cheh-klang and
Kiangsi, and going down the Kuang-hsin River,
which flows into the P'o-yang Lake, we visited a chain
of seven stations, each one of which was officered by
unmarried ladies, the work amongst the men being

LADY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 215

carried on by native pastors. In the first station
there were 99 converts; in the second, 17; in the
third, o ; in the fourth, 42 ; in the fifth, 5 ; in the
sixth, 70 ; in the seventh, 10 ; a total of 243 con-
verts. In each station, where there were converts,
the ladies, loved and respected, were carrying on a
noble work. The converts, brought out of the dark-
ness and superstition of heathenism into the light
and liberty of Christianity, were rejoicing in their
freedom, and seeking, in the joy of their first love
to Christ, to make their neighbours partakers of like
benefits.

Nine years have passed ; the converts in the seven
stations above-mentioned now number — In the first,
172; in the second, 55; in the third, 66; in the
fourth, 156; in the fifth, 112 ; in the sixth, 341 ; in
the seventh, 86 ; many outstations and other stations
have been opened, and the total number of converts
is over 1,100 — about 1,134.

Now here is production of " the salt of the earth "
going on apace. Is such work to be stopped be-
cause of the irresponsible talk of some who express
opinions, before they are possessed of the requisite
information to enable them to do so judicially ?

In the course of our journey down that river we
met a lady working in the sixth station. She has
been living there for twelve and a half years, without
ever once leaving the people, either for a holiday or
to go to the coast.

Being now in the home lands for a brief, well-

218

CHINA FROM WITHIN

I went often into districts where no foreigner had
been before, and the work was hard, the darkness
great, and the people indifferent to the Gospel.
There was some 'gossip,' of course, but, as my
Bible-woman and I made our way in and out
among the people, I met with much kindness
then, and never with disrespect. Of late years
the whole district seems changed — open doors on
all sides, far more than we can enter. The fields
are, indeed, 'white unto the harvest.' May God
soon re-open the door, and let us return to those
who are longing to see our faces again ! "

The above is the testimony of Miss Marchbank.
She ends by saying she has just received a letter
from a native pastor, who testifies that the mandarin
there is doing all he can to protect the native Chris-
tians and property left to his care.

The above testimony gives an admirable answer
to the criticisms of the late Professor Max Muller.
In his article on Buddhism in the Nineteenth
Century of November, 1900, he refers to unmarried
ladies in China. In speaking about Protestant
missionaries he says: "Although they could not
possibly, like the Jesuits, adapt themselves to the
prejudices of the Chinese ; they seem to have given
greater offence than in their ignorance they ima-
gined. To give one instance only. The European
missions would send out not only married, but un-
married ladies, and persisted in doing so, though
warned by those who knew China, that the Chinese

LADY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 219

recognise in public life two classes of women only — •
married women and single women of bad character.
What good results could the missions expect from
the missionary labours of persons so despised by the
Chinese ? "

When we first read this passage, if it had not
been for grief of heart at the wrong done, the sense
of the ridiculous would have been overpowering.
We should think it strange if an individual (whose
sole knowledge of military matters extended to
having once seen a military review in Hyde Park)
should write a stinging criticism on the tactics ol
our generals in this late South African war. But
this would not be so absurd as an Oxford professor,
laying down the law on ladies' work in the interior
of China, concerning a place he has never been to,
people he has never seen, work about which he
knows nothing, and calmly accusing heads of
missions of "ignorance" of Chinese matters, who
have been thirty, forty, and fifty years in the field!

Professor Max Muller was, no doubt, pre-eminent
in the spheres of Sanskrit and Comparative Philo-
logy ; but when he leaves those domains for ladies'
work in the interior of China, we do not exactly see
what his claims are for being listened to. When
we compare the artless witness of that lady worker,
mentioned above, with the studied dogmas of Max
Muller, we have a striking example of the supe-
riority of love over learning, and a demonstration
of how often, in matters of religion, the intuitions of

220 CHINA FROM WITHIN

a womanly heart transcend, as the bearens do the
earth, the deductions of a masculiDC reason. He
leents, too, to ignore the Buddhist nuns in China.
Everybodjr will listen to Max Mailer, yet we hope
some will pve an ear to what the weaker sex
have to say. They have been hit hard — hit when
down, and the Biitish love of fair play demands
that they should be heard. At any rate they can
do one thing that their critics cannot do in the
matter — they can "speak that they do know and
testify of that which they have seen." As Colonel
Uenby, the late U.S.A. Minister to China, said :
" I never believed in women's work in China before
I saw something of it."

Miss Soltau, who spent over a year in China
visiting the stations, especially the stations where
ladies were working, gives the following indepen-
dent testimony as to the work of the unmarried
liulics along the Kuang-hsin River. She has sent
us the following in writing : —

*' As an eye-witness of the work of unmarried
women in China, these points present themselves
to mc : —

" I. Their whole-hearted devotion to the Lord in
their work,

" 2. Their absorbing interest in those they were
able to reach, so that they won the women and
children by their patient, untiring love.

" 3- Their patience in instructing the ignorant

i
I

LADY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 221

' 4. Their influence over the Christian men.
'The ladies took no prominent part in the public
•services ; this was in the hands of pastors and
Evangelists. It seemed to me that the very
weakness of the instruments called the Christian
men to the front, and threw the responsibility upon
them of the evangelising of their fellow-country-
men.

" 5. The effect on the women converts of these
lives was that they, in their turn, followed the ex-
ample of their teachers in untiring zeal and love,
being trained to become Bible - women, school
teachers, visitors and matrons in the schools.

"Points that struck me forcibly were : The
respect paid to those ladies, both by rich and
•poor ; the access they had to the homes of the
wealthy as well as the poor ; the ease with which
they made their way among the people ; the con-
fidence shown them — from early morning till sunset
people coming from all parts for counsel or help.
Their houses were open to all who came — always
a welcome — 'hearts at leisure from themselves to
soothe and sympathize.' In some places a good
deal of work was done in dispensing simple medi-
cines, which gave them access into the homes of
the wealthy. In many cases the extreme kindness
of the officials to them was most striking.

" In the boarding schools the girls were being
trained to do all their own work, as they would be
required to do in their own homes — washing, cook-

; f

t i

•" *«*. ^- ''*°*^ i^n^

>*'*^ 'o "f""^ an 1'^ ^a;t Af^ '^'^

w *^ 'o sat, ^ «« ea. ^ Af«/, ' "^ ii

^^^^^ thZ" *^^«Ot rf

4s^

t^oi^°>' «-*,di *=^ C

'° «»e ._*" ^*'na. .P ^^ the ^ ^ *^ *^

., •-- "^ tftese no,-^ ^orJt or

"4s

folk

'"^^^ /n

'«ane<j

est I ■

reach.

3. Xh '"

've

«*r

222 CHINA FROM WITHIN

ing, needlework, embroidery, and, in some casesti

spinning."

Miss Soltau then goes on to speak of "similar '
schools in the province of Cheh-kiang." There she
mentions that the girl scholars had " extraordinary
proficiency in their knowledge of Scripture"; and
any one who knows anything of the hope and
brightness brought into a Chinese woman's life
by the emancipating truths of the New Testa-
ment know, too, the value of such knowledge,
" They were also learning the Chinese character
and the Romanized, geography and arithmetic, be-
sides all homely matters."

In conclusion, Miss Soltau, in speaking of these I
unmarried ladies and their work, says : " I would
like to bear testimony to the simplicity of their lives,
to their joy in service, to their lives of prayer, to .
their ceaseless and self-denying labours."

To this we would add our testimony that we"
believe that their work — sympathetic, conciliatory
and elevating to the people — is amongst the most
valuable work in China. Their absence would be
irreparable loss. Their sex and position are the
very things that assure the officials that tkey, at
any rate, are not "political agents."

In the North of China, where such enormities
have been committed, it will, of course, be quite
impossible for ladies to work for some time ; and
it will be certain that, at first, only men will be
able to enter the interior there. But, once given |

LADY MISSIONARIES IN CHINA 223

a Liberal Progressive Government, and the coun-
try would speedily settle down, the only vestige
of the past being a hideous memory. Railways
will soon be opening up the country, mines in
full swing, the happy relation which has existed
between foreigners of all grades and the people
of China re-established.

The idea of shutting out ladies, married or un-
married, when matters are thus tranquillized, is
both antiquated and preposterous. The Powers
will not leave the Chinese question until adequate
guarantees for future security are forthcoming.
Surely they will insist on China carrying out the
letter and spirit of the treaties, and not annul treaty
rights because of the fanatical acts of a handful of
Manchu madmen.

Apropos of the subject of this chapter, we subjoin
a personal incident : —

Coming home some years ago across the Pacific,
I entered into conversation with a lady who had
moved in high circles of Shanghai society. She
was a widow 01 some years, vivacious and intelli-
gent. Not knowing whom she was addressing, she
began to speak disparagingly of missions, and when
she came out with the remark, " There is one mis-
sion I do particularly object to, and that is the
Hudson- Taylor Mission," 1 thought I had given
her enough " rope," and answered, " I happen to be
a member of the China Inland Mission ; but will
I you kindly tell me why you so particularly object to

224 CHINA FROM WITHIN

it?" She laughed heartily, and apologised, after
which she said, " Well, one thing is the sending of
those young girls into the interior." Having just
at that very time come from my visit on the
Kuang-hsin River, I was able to give her the
testimony of an eye-witness as to what these
" young girls " were doing, their spirit of devo-
tion, and the success attending their labours.

We often conversed after that, and before landing
at Vancouver, she wanted to know the address of
the China Inland Mission, as, she said, " I should
like to give the mission a donation." Crossing the
Continent, we went by different trains. 1 had busi-
ness in New York, which detained me a day or two,
after which I booked by a Cunard liner for England.
On boarding the vessel, to my surprise, almost the
first person I saw was this same lady. We had
more conversation on missions going across the
Atlantic, and before our journey had ended she
came out with this : " I wish I were young again,
for then I could go out to China myself as a mis-
sionary." It was a striking illustration, to me, of
the way in which prejudice and misunderstanding
sometimes vanish in the presence of a little accurate
information.

Chapter XV
CONCLUSION

IN a very appreciative sketch of the life and doc-
trines of Confucius, which is characteristically
generous, and errs, if anything, on the side oi
charity. Dr. Legge thus concludes in his prolego-
mena of the Chinese Classics : " I must now leave
the sage. I hope I have not done him injustice ;
but after long study of his character and opinions I
am unable to regard him as a great man. He was
not before his age, though he was above the mass
of the officers and scholars of his time. He threw
no new light on any of the questions which have a
world-wide interest. He gave no impulse to reli-
gion. He had no sympathy with progress. His
influence has been wonderful, but it will henceforth
wane. My opinion is that the faith of the nation
in him will speedily and extensively pass away."

These words, written in 1861, are having in-
creasing fulfilment The young Emperor in 1898
issued an edict ordering Imperial clansmen to send
their sons abroad to study foreign languages and
government, and only to-day {November 26th) we
have the newspapers teUing us that the Chinese Am-

226

CHINA FROM WITHIN

bassador to Berlin, and other high Chinese officials
suggest, that the instigators of these late enormities
should be sent abroad, so that in foreign countries
they may gain repentance, and the fruits thereof in
studying the government, sociology, and language
of Western nations. And all this in face of the
Master's warning, " Beware of foreign customs!"

Viceroy Chang Chih-tung, perhaps the greatest,
certainly the best known living Chinese scholar,
brought out in 1898 a remarkable treatise with the
significant title " Learn ! " He shows his country-
men how much they have to learn from the nations
of the West, and this in spite of the words of
Mencius — a passage that was constantly on the lips
of Li ping-heng when, with Yu-hsien, he was foster-
ing the Boxer movement in Shan-tung province —
" I have heard of men using the doctrines of our
great land to change barbarians, but I have never
yet heard of any being changed by barbarians ! "

This friendly Viceroy still places too much faith
in Confucianism for the regeneration of China ;
however, in the above-mentioned treatise, he makes
the following candid remarks about Christianity ;
" The Western religion is daily flourishing, while
the two cults (Buddhism and Taoism) are daily
declining and cannot last long. Buddhism is on its
last legs, and Taoism is discouraged because its
demons are spiritless."

Such men as the Viceroy, in holding on to the
Classics, lay themselves open to the unfriendly

I
I

CONCLUSION 227

gibes, and sneering taunts, which are constantly
being levelled at them by their fellow-countrymen.
It is the Classics that foster that over-weening con-
ceit in the nation, which genders a "patriotism " in
China which is as false as it is pernicious. The
creed of these patriots is : " Hatred to the
' foreigner ' because he is a foreigner, and to all
things ' foreign ' because they are foreign." These
false patriots cannot endure the thought that China
should be under obligation to foreigners for any-
thing. This has been well brought out in some able
articles that are now being published in the North
China Herald, by the Rev. W. A. Cornaby, entided
" Chinese Problems." In a chapter on " Ruts," he
says : —

" Admiral P'eng Yu-lin, of a decade or so back,
in his book. Chinas Indulgence toward Foreigners,
gives quite an elaborate dissertation on the unorigi-
nality of foreign inventions,

" He says: 'Our philosopher, Mo-tzii {fourth and
fifth century B.C.), who discusses transformations . . .
is the founder of Chemistry. What our books say
of hairs and strings, their weight, etc., is the begin-
ning of the science of Mechanics. What they say
about two lights meeting and forming an image on
a mirror is the beginning of the science of Optics.
Our philosopher, Kang Tsang-ize says that water is
the refuse of the earth ; vapour is the refuse of
water. He is the founder of the science of Steam.
Our classic, the Li King {i.e. Book of Rites), says

228

CHINA FROM WITHIN

there is a divine force in the earth, and that when
wind and thunder arise the dew falls ; this is the
science of Electricity. Moreover, our Kuan Yin-
tze says that fire arises from striking one stone
against another ; that thunder and lightning arise
from gases which can be made artificially. Our
Huai Nan-tze (died B.C., 122) says that yellow
earth, blue crystal, red cinnabar, white jade, and
black stone, every year produce quicksilver. What
is above the fountain of the earth is cloud, what
results from intercourse of the yin and yang (i.e.
" male " and " female ") principles is thunder; their
clashing produces lightning. Heat earth and we
get wood, heat wood and we get fire, heat fire and
we get clouds, heat clouds and we get water, heat
the water and we get earth again. Thus we in
China discuss electricity very minutely.

"'Now these intelligent Western scholars took J
this teaching and developed it, and own that they
cannot surpass what is recorded in Chinese books.
But Chinese scholars, unacquainted with their own
philosophers of yore, are foolish enough when they
see some strange thing used by foreigners, to think
of it as new ! '

" And further on : 'Do not think that the
foreigner is truly skilled, it is the Chinese who
most excels in these skilful things after all [the
skilful things specially referred to being torpedoes,
telephones, machinery, and locomotives] only
that he does not care for them.' Which utterance

4
I
I

CONCLUSION

229

can only be excelled by a Chinese at Tientsin, some
years back, who, pointing to the telegraph wires,
said to a missionary : ' Have you got these Chinese
things in your country ? '

" Reading between the lines of that sturdy states-
man just quoted, we may see, however, that it is
the word ' foreigner ' which is the crux of the
whole difficulty. P'eng YU-Iin was an undoubted
patriot, and there are many in China of all ranks
and grades, who though not patriots, yet have suffi-
cient strong national feeling to say : ' Let us be
pulled out of our rut, by all means, but not by the
foreigner.' "

This being so, we are not surprised to have Mr,
Cornaby stating a little further on : —

"An enlightened official, like H. E. Chang
Chih-tung (Viceroy of Hupeh and Hunan), who
introduces iron works, arsenals, cotton and silk
mills, who employs foreigners, and is in no sense
their servant, must bear much popular obloquy, and
be nicknamed, ' foreigner's slave,' even by neigh-
bours and relatives of thousands who gain lucrative
employment at these ' foreign ' works,"

And these things will never alter, so long as the
Classics are looked upon by the Chinese as an ulti-
mate court of appeal.
■ Mr, Cornaby, too, has some excellent remarks on
W" Mandarindom."

He opens by quoting two edicts of the Empress-
Dowager — the gist of one being that " the mandarin

230 CHINA FROM WITHIN

system is excellent," of the other that " many man-
darins do not in their own persons exemplify the
excellence of the system." However, Mr. Chester
Holcomb has debated this last point. Mr. Comaby
answers : —

" Must we venture to differ, and, with most
Europeans and with perhaps three hundred million
Chinese to support our verdict, say that although
mandarindom is about as corrupt an institution as
can be, various individual mandarins are respectable
and highly respected men ? "

He then goes on to say, owing to the inadequacy
of the mandarin's salary, it is virtually impossible
for them to work out the " conscience-stirring
maxims of Confucius in practice." He maintains
that Confucius, if he were to appear in the flesh,
would have no sympathy with mandarindom.

" And there is little doubt as to the treatment
that mandarindom would mete out to Confucius,
whom missionaries honour as a sage indeed, were
he to revisit his old haunts in North China once
more. He would fare little better than missionaries
have fared in those precise provinces.

" How mandarindom would despise Confucius did
it not get its living by trading on his name !

'"But 'tis their duty, all the learned think,
T* espouse his cause by whom they eat and drink,'

as Dryden reminds us."
He then asks : — •

CONCLUSION 231

" What is there in Christian civilization or the
presence of foreigners that mandarindom, as such,
can utilise ? The people have rebelled, times with-
out number, against the extortions of mandarindom,
and will any sort of education, administered by men
hailing from lands where mandarindom is unknown,
make the populace more submissive to extortion,
however much the missionary may exhort his con-
verts to be good citizens and respect the powers
that be ? ' Good citizens, forsooth ! Why, the
populace are having smuggled into their minds the
principles of right and wrong ! How can they then

I remain good citizens! '

* "As Wan Sing, a Chinese banker in Chicago,
said to a reporter recently : ' The advance of the
so-called civilization ... I hate every step of
it ! ' So mandarindom is shouting all the time. For,
with the ' rise of the people ' is bound up the de-
cline of mandarindom. And should foreign influence
spread through China, as a ride in ' our ' sedan-
chair along the Bund, assures 'us' to be highly
probable, then ' our ' days are numbered. And
what of 'our' vested interests?

" ' Then that great customs building in the centre
of the Shanghai Bund representing a foreign con-
spiracy whereby, on receipt of a definite salary, the
whole of the proceeds go out of mandarins' pockets
to the Imperial Government. Shall I, in time,
have to learn from the barbarians and come down
to that ? '

232 CHINA FROM WITHIN

" And a voice from the blue makes answer,
or go ! ' "

The author of Chinese Characteristics, in his
chapter on " The Absence of Sincerity," remarks :
" It is unnecessary to do more than to allude in pass-
ing to the fact that the Chinese Government, so far
as it is knowable, appears to be a gigantic example
of the trait which we are discussing. Instances are
to be found in the entire history of foreign relations
with China, and one might almost say in all that
is known of the relations of Chinese officials to the
people. A single but compendious illustration is to
be found in those virtuous proclamations which are
issued with such unfailing regularity, in such super-
lative abundance, with such felicity of diction, on
all varieties of subjects, and from all grades of
officials. One thing only is lacking, namely, reality,
for these fine commands are not intended to be en-
forced. This is quite understood by all concerned,
and on this point there are no illusions."

Here our author quotes another : —

" The life and state papers of a Chinese statesman,
like the Confessions of Rousseau, abound in the finest
sentiments and the foulest deeds. He cuts off ten
thousand heads, and cites a passage from Mencius
about the sanctity of human life. He pockets the
money given him to repair an embankment, and
thus inundates a province, and he deplores the land
lost to the cultivator of the soil. He makes a treaty
which he secretly declares to be only a deception

CONCLUSION 233

for the moment, and he declaims against the crime
of perjury."

Our author continues : —

" Doubtless there may be pure-minded and upright
officials in China, but it is very hard to find them,
and from the nature of their environment, they are
utterly helpless to accomplish the good which they
may have at heart. When we compare the actual
condition of those who have had the best oppor-
tunity to become acquainted with the Chinese Clas-
sics, with the teaching of those Classics, we gain a
vivid conception of how practically inert they have
been to bring society to their high standard."

I But brighter days are in store for China. The
' analogy of all past history shows us that the throes
through which she is now passing will give birth to
a better state of things. The New Testament has
come, and come to stay. The bearers of the match-
less documents which compose that book are pro-
claiming far and wide in the name of Christ forgive-
ness of sins, they are pressing the emancipating
principles of love to God and man, and making
known the gift of the Holy Spirit, as the alone vital
motive force that will enable men to reduce those
principles to practice. Already, from the young
Emperor downwards, multitudes, millions have
been touched more or less by this doctrine of
hope.

There is a new China — young China — already in

236

CHINA FROM WTTHIN

between progress and reaction, between comiption
and justice, between oppression and liberty.
I am, etc,

A Reformer.
4/^ October.

The following is the manifesto referred to : —
We, the undersigned, representatives of the
people of China and members of the Reform Party,
in view of the inevitable collapse of the Manchu
dynasty and the grave situation into which its mad
career and insane folly have plunged the Chinese
nation, have met this day in convention, and. as a
result of our deliberations, do hereby declare to the
world : —

That the Chinese nation, falling back on the
universal doctrine that the people are the source of
political power, and the voice of the people is the
voice of God, do hereby no longer recognise the
Manchu Government as a political oiganization fit
to rule over China.

It has signally failed to protect the persons and
property of the people in proportion to the support
they have given ; on the contrary, it has systemati-
cally robbed them of their substance, till at length
the whole country is filled with poverty and want,
distress and discontent.

It has utterly failed to preserve the territorial
integrity of China, and consequently laid itself open
to foreign aggression, insult, and invasion.

CONCLUSION

237

Its policy, both domestic and foreign, has been of
a repressive and reactionary character. The object-
lessons of repeated conflicts with Foreign Powers
have had no appreciable effect upon its unmitigated
conceit and wilful ignorance. In its relations and
intercourse with the outside world, it invariably
manifested a studied purpose to shut out all light
and truth from the dark situation in which China
was placed, hence the laissez /aire policy by which
she has been sedulously kept behind the times and
given no chance to catch the animating and irre-
pressible spirit of modern ideas and progress.

When we look into the inwardness of its adminis-
trations, we find that it is rickety and rotten to the
core. Every branch and department of the Govern-
ment, inside and outside of Peking, is honey-
combed with corruption. In short, the whole
political fabric presents to the world a gigantic
tissue of glaring falsehood unworthy of being
propped up by any enlightened Power for considera-
tion of commercial or political expediency.

Therefore be it

(i) Resolved, that, since the Almighty God, the
Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, has
given to the Chinese people this magnificent coun-
try as its peculiar heritage, we henceforth and for
ever intend to make it a heritage worthy of our
Benefactor ; that it is our bounden duty to make a
new China of the old ; to fill the land with happi-
ness instead of misery j and to make it a blessing

238

CHINA FROM WITHIN

to the Chinese nation in particular, and the world in
general.

(2) Resolved, that it is our firm conviction that
the simplest solution of the present complicated
problem is for the Allied Powers to depose and
banish the Usurper and her crew of servile bigots
and reactionaxies, and to reinstate the Emperor
Kuang HsU, who stood as the exponent and repre-
sentative of Reform. This resumption will at once
restore public confidence, allay popular discontent,
and remove a possible cause of international compli-
cations.

(3) Resolved, that, in the event of Kuang HsU
no longer living, it is our purpose to organize a
provisional Government and elect a temporary chair-
man, till the best man for Emperor be found, when
he will be permanently seated on the throne of
China.

(4) Resolved, that the new Government of China
shall be a constitutional monarchy, whose funda-
mental principle shall be the Magna Charta and the
unwritten constitution of the British Government
In the organization and administration of this con-
stitutional Empire, we would request the wise men
of the West to come, with the special sanction of
their respective Governments, to help us with their
counsel and experience.

(5) Resolved, that we propose to constitute a
constitutional Empire, which in letter and in spirit,
in legislation and in administration, in theory and

CONCLUSION

239

in practice, shall be a model polity, worthy of the
creation of the highest intelligence and enlighten
ment of the Twentieth Century.

(6) Resolved, that, availing ourselves of the ex-
perience, light and wisdom of the past twenty cen-
turies, it shall be our first duty to educate the people
to the new order of things ; to study their wants ;
to protect their persons and property ; to abolish
all social and political evils ; to establish a sound
fiscal policy ; to regulate the finances ; to determine
upon the system of national banks ; to establish a
universal system of graded schools ; to improve
and stimulate agriculture ; to encourage and facili-
tate trade ; and to throw wide open the whole of
China to foreign trade on a footing of equality.

(7) Resolved, that, in order to maintain the
public peace and to give protection and security to
domestic and foreign commerce, the army and navy
be organized on the most modern footing without
delay. For this purpose military and naval schools
shall be established for the training of officers.

(8) Resolved, that the right of habeas corpus
and trial by jury in all courts of justice be avail-
able by every subject of the Empire, and that
before them every man shall stand on an equal
footing.

(9) Resolved, that every subject of the new
Government shall be entitled to enjoy freedom of
conscience and faith, of private judgment and
speech. Neither outside dictation, nor ecclesiastical

240

CHINA FROM WITHIN

supremacy of any kind, shall be allowed to inter-
fere with, or intervene between, the civil authorities '
and the exercise of the rights of the people.

(ro) Resolved, that the new constitutional Em-
pire, in assuming the Government of the Empire,
shall assume all the responsibilities and obligations
towards foreign Powers contracted by the old rd-
gime, and shall faithfully discharge the National
Debt and fulfil all treaty obligations. And, finally,
that every effort shall be made to make every
branch and department of the new Government |
and its administration honest and pure, so as to '
realize the great political doctrine of Government
of the people, by the people, for the people."

The idea is present in many minds, that the J
Emperor Kuang Hsu is weak-minded. This is not |
so. He has had, for a time, to waive his rights,
predilections, and aspirations ; but, in doing so, he
has only yielded to force majeure. Hitherto his
life has been spared as by a miracle. We have
heard he daily prays to God to give him back his
throne. Let us join with those prayers ; and trust
that, coming again to power, he will be enabled to
bring to fruition those beneficent reforms with <
which his name must be for ever associated. 1

And now what is the outlook? How shall the
terrible race hatred which has been so embittered
and intensified these last two or three years in
China be assuaged? The Empress-Dowager, by ,

CONCLUSION 241

her mischievous edicts, fanned the spark into a
flame ; she based all her appeals to the prejudices
of the scholars and the passions of the masses on
foreign seizure of territory ; and now, when China
is at the mercy of foreign powers, and her capital
occupied by foreign troops, what do we see ? No
power is demanding an inch of soil. They emphatic-
ally repudiate any such intention ; they are willing
to guarantee the territorial integrity of China. The
Manchu conception of things is demonstrated to be
A Gigantic Blunder. Will China honestly acknow-
ledge this ? Will she make it plain to her ' ' scholars,
farmers, labourers, and merchants"? Will suspicion
of the foreigners give way to trust? Will hatred
be replaced by good-will ? It is to be deplored that
some articles in first-class Reviews, Reviews that
largely mould educated opinion, will have no ten-
dency to promote a healthy view of things at home,
or act reflexly in China to bring about that most
desirable consummation.

Sir Robert Hart has written an article in the
Fortnightly Review of November. It seems to us
an apology for Manchu iniquity. Patriotism is con-
founded with a blind conservatism. The Spectator
criticises his main contention as being "only his
functional opinion as a paid servant of the dynasty."

Professor Max MuUer was pleased, in the Nine-
teenth Century, to practically exonerate the Boxers
on the ground of Christian provocation! Speaking
of the missionaries of the Reformed Churches, he

242

CHINA FROM WITHIN

says that, "trusting in the protection of Foreign
Powers, they seem, on various occasions, to have
provoked the national sensibilities of the Chinese,
and thus, particularly in the ease of their native
converts, to have encouraged the Chinese to commit
such atrocities as those we have just been witnessing''
Let this attack on the native converts, more unjust
if possible than his attack on lady missionaries, be
answered by the fact of many thousands of native
Protestant Christians laying down their lives in
martyrdom, the vast majority of them without
giving the slightest provocation whatever. Some
of us pastors, who mourn the loss of flocks, might
have thought we could have been spared such stabs
in the back, concerning those as dear to us as
children, from men who profess the Christian name.
We knew such tenets were held by Yli-hsien, but
did not expect Germans and Englishmen to sub-
scribe to his creed.

And further, he says : " To claim any privilege,
however small, for Chinese converts was certainly
an imprudence on the part of the great European
Powers. In Chinese Society, any attempt to raise
the social status of these Christian converts was sure
to excite jealousy and even hatred. After our late
experiences, it must be quite clear that it is more
than doubtful whether Christian missionaries should
be sent or even allowed to go to countries the Govern-
ment of which objects to their presence. It is always
and everywhere the same story. First commercial

I
I

CONCLUSION

243

'adventurers, then consuls, then missionaries, then
soldiers, then war."

In this last sentence he almost quotes some well-
meaning but most unfortunate words of Lord Salis-
bury. But is it " always and everywhere the same
story " } We have not so read the history of China.
We have hitherto imagined that the first war that
foreign soldiers waged with China went by the sig-
nificant name of the opium war, and missionaries
may be said to have had rather less to do with that
than the man in the moon. It is true that the
successful conduct of \\\^ peace negotiations at Nan-
king devolved on a British missionary, J. R. Mor-
rison, who received no remuneration for his services
from the British Government, and whose death,
shortly after, Sir Henry Pottinger, the British
Plenipotentiary, affirmed to be "a positive national
calamity." Just as it is also true that recently
another British missionary. Brown of Tientsin,
piloted General Gaselee and the British troops into
Peking hours before the other forces ; and an
American missionary, Gamewell, superintended the
trench work in the Legation siege.

And what about consuls? "Then consuls, then
missionaries," was Max Muller's order. We thought
that missionaries were in China more than a millen-
nium before them. Even modern missionaries were
in China before consuls. While as to gunboats,
they may, under favourable circumstances, be able

I to hurl their shots a few miles, but they have not

CHINA FROM WITHIN

much to do with hundreds of missionaries from a
hundred to five hundred miles away from the nearest
Treaty Port.

When the late Professor Max Miiller declared that
the European Powers " committed an imprudence in
claiming any privileges for Chinese converts," or
" seeking to raise their social status " ; and, that " it
is more than doubtful whether missionaries should
be allowed to go to countries the Governments of
which object to their presence," what was he talking
about ? We cannot suppose he was ignorant of the
Treaty of Tientsin. That Treaty secured the tolera-
tion of Christianity. The Professor would not
surely have objected to this. We cannot see how
the virtual founder of the "science of comparative
religion " could take exception to religious toleration.
Moreover, the Chinese Government, in tolerating
Christianity, gave as its reason for doing so, that the
Christian religion taught men " to love their neigh-
bours as themselves." It was admitled on that
ground. And any government would be foolish in-
deed who did otherwise. What government does
not know the practical value of altruism ? What
government is not quick to appreciate the help given
to it by true religion ? Could Britain afford to dis-
pense with the God-fearing portion of her populace ?
It is a mere truism to say that real Christians give
no trouble to governments, and constitute their
strength. Such need no jails. They break no laws.
If missionaries carry out somewhat in their lives,

CONCLUSION

245

and introduce into China, the saint-producing prin-
ciples of disinterested love to God and man, what
Chinese statesman, worthy of the name, would say
that these were " evil doctrines," and the propaga-
tion of them boded China's ill ? No government on
earth has the right to "object to the presence" of
such teachers. On the contrary, every government
should bid them welcome.

Again, the agreement of the Chinese Government
that converts should not be forced to pay the idola-
trous temple tax is not a " privilege," except in the
sense that becoming a Christian is a privilege. The
two are necessarily one. And it cannot be said that
the " social status of the converts is raised thereby."
On the contrary, if anything, it is lowered.

The Professor's remarks were far too late in the
day. China has tolerated Christianity, and she will
have to tolerate it. No doubt men like Wu ting-
fang, Yang yu, and Lo feng-luh hate Christianity,
notwithstanding the professed conversion of the
last-named at Bristol. But the Professor fell into a
trap if he thought the opinions of such men repre-
sent the opinions of the most enlightened Chinese.
Even thorough-going ConfucianistsAo not agree with
him. Listen to the words of Chang Chih-tung, the
celebrated Viceroy of central China, on " Religious
toleration."

"Our own opinion is, that in order to advance
Confucianism we must reform the Government, and
not everlastingly combat other religions. The

2+6

CHINA FROM WITHIN

times are changed now — the present is not the past.
Since the treaties were made, the Western reiigioa
has spread o%'er China. Our laws permit it, and
the burning of chapels by Chinese is forbidden by
our Emperor. The higher class of Chinese should
carefully consider the situation, and should toteiate
the Western religion as they tolerate Buddhism and
Taoism. Why should it injure us ? And because
Confucianism as now practised is inadequate to lift
us from the present plight, why retaliate by scofi&ng
at other religions ? Not only is such a procedure
useless ; it is dangerous. For the people imitate
their rulers, and the scoundrels and rapscallions of
China take occasion to create disturbances against
foreigners, and witliout provocation injure them, and
thus grieve the heart of our Emperor. The for-
eigners themselves are aroused against us, and
calamity falls like gloom upon the country. How
can such men be called patriotic ?

"Ye long-robed and begirdled Confucianists,
it is your office and duty to instruct the ignorant
people, and not be fools yourselves, lest the men
from beyond the seas sneer at you behind your
backs ! "

We attack not the departed, learned, and justly
lamented Professor Max Miiller. We consider,
however, that his misjudged opinions concerning
missions in China are completely refuted not by our
replies, but by the above quotation from the writings
of one of China's truest patriots and most able

CONCLUSION

247

statesmen. He is not among those who, with the
late Professor, hold that " the Protestant mission-
aries, and especially their converts, have provoked
the Chinese sensibilities, and thus encouraged them
to commit such atrocities," Writing as a mission-
ary, it is impossible to escape the charges of making
ex parte statements and prejudice. Notwithstand-
ing this, we insert the following paragraph occurring
in the North China Herald oi October 31st, 1900,
in a leading article. It must be understood to
represent the views of the leading secular paper in
Shanghai.

" When the history of the present crisis in China
comes to be written impersonally and the glamour
of a heroism in Peking, which came, alas ! too late
to avert the disaster which an open mind and pru-
dent forethought might have entirely prevented, has
passed away, then it will also become clear that far
from it being through the missionary that this
calamity came, his was the warning voice which
would have saved the situation had it fallen upon
hearing ears. From the time when a leading mis-
sionary pleaded in formd pauperis to the British
Minister for the Emperor Kuang-Hsii and was told
in effect to mind his own business, to the murder of
Messrs. Norman and Robinson, it may be said that
warnings as to the trend and end of events inces-
sandy went from the missionaries to Peking, and
(were as incessantly neglected.

" What of all this ? Post factum stultus sapit. It

248

CHINA FROM WITHIN

is ours to see that what has occurred in China does
not occur again. The past is beyond recall ; much
of the future is ours. If there is one body of
residents in China more than another qualified to
speak on the course of events, it is the missionary.
The average missionary has in his hands sources
of information denied to the most energetic consul.
He has the friendship and often confidence of
progressive officials. He grasps the Chinese stand-
point, and knows much of the working of the
Chinese mind. Amongst foreign residents in
China his position is unique. How may this be
made use of for the protection of the missionary
interest in China, which in the long run is bound to
coincide with foreign interests generally ? At pre-
sent missionary interests in China are inarticulate.
It is suggested that the missionary body at once set
about the organization of a strong representative
executive on the lines of the China Association.
Such an executive, with its comprehensive sources
of information and capacity of judgment, must
command respect, and its expressions of opinion
be of immense value to all foreigners in China. It
would naturally watch events in the interests of its
own labours, and advise Consuls, Ministers, and
where necessary the home Governments. Is it not
more than probable that had a representative body,
such as is here suggested, instead of individuals,
drawn the attention of the world to what was
preparing in Shantung and Chihii six months ago,

CONCLUSION

249

our heaven-sent diplomats might have acted very
differently ? Shall the future be what the past
has been ? and is the agony and suffering of mis-
sionaries and converts to be without effect in the
safe-guarding of the future ? These questions are
commended to the thinking public in general and
to the missionaries in particular."

Far be it from us as missionaries, however, to
blow our own trumpets. Who of us does not
lament the shortcoming and failure which attend
our efforts ?

The following words, which we have just received
from the Rev. Timothy Richard, would voice the
sentiments of the missionary body. Mr. Richard is
Secretary to the Christian Literature Society, one
of China's most able and devoted missionaries, and
on terms of intimacy with the highest officials in
the Empire : —

" It has been a terrible year of trial. Is our
work straw and stubble, or is it something that will
come out like gold out of the fire ? We, as mis-
sionaries, are tried in all our relationships to the
Chinese Government, to Foreign Governments, to
the whole Christian Church at home, to the multi-
tudes of heathen people abroad. Have we shown
the Christ in His fulness as Prophet, the Teacher of
the nations, as Priest, the Guide of the world to
God, and as King of kings, and Lord of lords ?

" Educational, superhuman and political, we are
weighed in all these balances to see if we are what

250

CHINA FROM WITHIN

we should be. Oh, how imperfect and wanting the
best of us all feel ! "

Yet, let us, in spite of all, keep optimistic. Sir
Robert Hart, in his article referred to above, says,
" Nothing but partition or a miraculous spread of
Christianity in its best form — a not impossible but
scarcely to be looked-for religious triumph — will avert
the result " (of the foreigner being cast out of China).
Let us hold to these old sayings, that " the blood of
the martyrs is the seed of the Church," " the darkest
hour is before the dawn," and, above all, the pro-
mises of Scripture, remembering that "the things
which are impossible with men are possible with
God."

And now we must bring this book, or rather
compilation, to a close. Our hope is that, as aa
outcome of its perusal, some who have not yet
decided how they shall lay out the one life they
have at their disposal, may be led to consider the
claims of this great nation on their services. Great
Britain would not be the loser, but only a gainer, if
many of her most gifted, most learned and most
holy went out into the great heathen fields.

" Give, and it shall be given unto you, good
measure, pressed down, shaken together and run-
ning over" — is a principle which holds good of
individuals, churches, and nations.

" There is that scattereth, and increaseth yet
more ; there is that withholdeth more than is meet,
but it tendeth only to want " (Prov. xi. 24).

CONCLUSION 251

The ancient prophet grasped the purpose of the
Most High, and the wise will do well to give them-
selves up to an intelligent co-operation with that
will, and, in so doing, hasten its grand consumma-
tion.

''As the earth bringeth forth her bud, and as the
garden causeth the things that are sown in it to
spring forth : so the Lord God will cause righteous-
ness and praise to spring forth before a// the nations"
(Isa. Ixi. 11).

Butler & Tanner, The Selwood Printing Works, Frome, and London.

Note i. As to the " dauntless mendacity " of some of the
Chinese Ambassadors in foreign countries, at the time of the
siege of the Legations mentioned in this book, the phrase may
be chiiritably withdrawn ; as, owing to the monstrously untrue
instructions issued by the Manchu Government to them at the
time, they may have been deceived by their own Government

Note 2. The late writings of K'ang yu-wei, the leading
Reformer in 1898, have been most disappointing. In them ■J
he speaks of foreigners and foreign countries in a way which j
betokens both ignorance and ingratitude.

Note 3. In Chinese, pronounce final 'a' as a in father;
final ' i ' as ee ; final 'o' as or in for; final 'ou' as o; final 'ao'
as the ow in now; final 'ai' as the i in pint; final *ei' as fbe
ay in say ; final ' uan * as the wan in want

ERRATA

Date of Chinese- Japanese war given as 1897; it should be '
1894, 1S95, — Russia obtaining Fort Arthur in the latter year.

In the concluding chapter John Robert Morrison is described
as "a British missionary." He should rather be spoken of as
a British official, who spent his spare lime in missionary work.
He was son of Robert Morrison, the pioneer Protestant mis-
sionary to China.

Footnote to clause in Chapter XIV., concerning Professor Max
Miiller, " He seems, too, to ignore the Buddhist nuns in China."
It must be admitted, however, that in many parts of China t
these nuns have a bad reputation.

Internet Archive Audio

Featured

Top

Images

Featured

Top

Software

Featured

Top

Texts

Featured

Top

Video

Featured

Top

Mobile Apps

Browser Extensions

Archive-It Subscription

Save Page Now

Full text of "China from Within; Or, The Story of the Chinese Crisis"

See other formats